


Pick Your Poison

by ReddieOrNot (cajungirlkye)



Series: Pick Your Poison [1]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dual POV, Enthusiastic Consent, Heed the warnings for each chapter, If that's not your thing you can skip it, M/M, Porn in the epilogue too, See chapter notes on which part to skip, Slow Burn, The smut is in chapter 12
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:42:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 30,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22469566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cajungirlkye/pseuds/ReddieOrNot
Summary: By-the-book DEA agent Edward "Eddie" Kaspbrak receives an assignment that takes him to Derry, ME in order to capture Robert "Bob" Gray, aka "Pennywise", a notorious drug lord. Working with the local PD, he is partnered with narcotics detective Richie Tozier, a wise-cracking, messy cop who immediately pushes Eddie's buttons. When they have to go undercover as a pair, will they put aside their differences long enough to work together, or will working together reveal that they have more in common than they initially thought?
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Series: Pick Your Poison [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1790197
Comments: 69
Kudos: 153





	1. Chapter One - Eddie

**Author's Note:**

> YOOOOOO welcome to my Undercover Cop Reddie AU! This fic was inspired by an amazing gifset made by the fantastic toesure over on Tumblr: https://toesure.tumblr.com/post/190280242086/reddie-au-in-the-next-episode-of-expensive-cars

"What does that even _mean?_ " DEA agent Edward Kaspbrak muttered to himself as he sat at his desk, trying to make sense of a fellow agent's field report in order to transcribe it. He had just made a note to ask Franklin what the hell a 'bananagram orangutan' even was and had gone back to absentmindedly chewing on his pen when his extension rang. 

He quickly took the pen out of his mouth and picked up the receiver without bothering to look at the caller ID. "Kaspbrak."

"Agent Kaspbrak, urgent meeting in the conference room, now," the voice of the DEA director, Nekol Eastwood, replied brusquely.

"Yes ma'am." Eddie immediately hung up, grabbed his coffee, a notepad, and a new pen, and headed down the hall.

He entered the conference room and gave a brief nod to his colleagues already in attendance before sitting down and neatly arranging his belongings on the table, noticing that the projector that sat on the table was on and pointed towards the screen on the wall.

A few seconds later, Director Eastwood walked in. "Good morning everyone," she said as she stepped behind the podium at the head of the room. "Thank you all for joining me on such short notice."

Eddie turned his attention to the screen behind the Director as she picked up the presentation remote that had been sitting on the podium and clicked a button.

Eddie's eyebrows raised as a photo appeared on the screen and Director Eastwood began to speak.

"At 6:42 AM this morning, we received an anonymous tip that Robert "Bob" Gray, also known as "Pennywise", was currently located in a small town in rural Maine, which fits previous intel we had been given about an increase in the number of possible drug-related deaths in the area." She clicked to a new slide, showing a map of Maine, with a star on it labelled _Derry_. 

"A small baggie of pills, all bearing Pennywise's logo, was found at the latest scene." She clicked again and a new slide appeared. On the left side of the screen was a crime scene photo showing a close-up of a baggie of pills on the floor of a room. On the right, another photo showed a singular pill bearing Pennywise's clown-faced stamp.

"Agent Kaspbrak."

At the sound of his name Eddie subconsciously straightened and his eyes snapped from the screen back to Director Eastwood. "Yes ma'am."

"Since Pennywise is believed to be involved I want you to go to Maine and work with the local PD in order to find him and bring him in." 

Eddie sucked in a breath. He had recently requested to be placed back on field duty but hadn't expected to be handed an assignment quite so soon, especially not _the_ one case he had been itching to get involved in. "Me, Director?"

Director Eastwood leveled a look at him. "You requested to be placed back on active field duty, did you not?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Well then. You're approved." Director Eastwood looked around the room. "The rest of you know your assignments. You're dismissed."

Eddie went to get up, but Director Eastwood stopped him. "Agent Kaspbrak, before you go, a moment please."

Eddie lowered himself back into his seat as the rest of his colleagues filed out.

Director Eastwood shut the door behind them before taking a seat across from Eddie. "You seemed surprised to be handed this assignment."

"I was," Eddie replied, "but only because I just submitted my official request to return to the field last week. I just wasn't expecting to be given an assignment so quickly, especially not one as broad and important as the Pennywise case."

Director Eastwood steepled her fingers together and looked at Eddie over them. "I know you've been studying this case for a while now and know the details and Pennywise's patterns better than anyone, which is why I gave it to you. But if you feel like it's too soon or need to start with something smaller I can assign someone else, like Franklin for instance--"

"Don't you DARE," Eddie hissed so as not to be overheard. "Franklin is an idiot!"

Director Eastwood's lips quirked up in a smile, but Eddie was on a roll and didn't notice. "I was trying to make sense of his field report from the Monterey cartel case last month and I swear, it's complete nonsense. It's riddled with grammatical errors, he misspelled the word 'grapefruit', and he used so much correction tape on it that it looks like half of it has been redacted."

He finally noticed the grin on Director Eastwood's face and narrowed his eyes. "You weren't _actually_ going to give this assignment to Franklin, were you?"

Director Eastwood just quirked an eyebrow and leaned back in her chair. "How are you doing, Eddie?" she asked seriously. "Really."

Eddie sighed and relaxed. "I'm fine, Nikki, I promise. I honestly feel better than I have in years. You know the only reason I requested desk duty during my divorce proceedings was so that I could be sure to be in town for the meetings with my & Myra's lawyers since Myra kept trying to stall by scheduling meetings for when she knew I was out of town on a case. But now that the divorce is final I can get back to doing what I do best -- capturing drug-running scum like Pennywise and putting them behind bars."

"Good. I'm really happy to hear you say that."

Eddie bit his lip. "I… I do want to say thank you though for everything else you've done for me during the divorce. You have no idea how much I appreciate you, and the therapist you recommended has been great in helping me figuring out who I am and what I want in life."

Director Eastwood paused. "Any time, Eddie. Just because I've been your boss for the past 3 years, it doesn't cancel out the 20-plus years of friendship that we've had and the fact that you're basically family. You're my best friend and I love you like a brother. You know you can always count on me if you ever need to talk or anything. You truly deserve to find happiness."

"Thanks, Nikki."

Director Eastwood stood and patted Eddie on the shoulder. "Now, the details of your assignment will be on your desk by the end of the day. Oh, and Agent Kaspbrak?"

Eddie grinned. "Yes ma'am?"

"Go catch the bastard."

Director Eastwood shot him a wink as she left the conference room.


	2. Chapter Two - Richie

"Sorry I'm late, Cap," Detective Richie Tozier drawled as he strolled into the Derry PD's conference room for the mid-week departmental meeting, a box of doughnuts in each hand. "Derry Doughnuts was busier than usual."

"It's ok, we just started," Captain Bill Denbrough replied. "Have a seat."

Richie snagged a bavarian cream-filled doughnut and set the box on the table near the door before taking an empty seat at the small, round conference table.

"Anyway, as I was saying, I just got off the phone with the DEA's office in Washington. It appears that the new street drugs we're seeing as well as the uptick in drug-related deaths could possibly be connected with a major drug dealer named Robert Gray, also known on the streets as 'Pennywise'. It's rumored that he's set up shop here in Derry, so we will be collaborating with the DEA, who has sent an agent familiar with the case to assist us in bringing him down." 

Captain Denbrough looked at his notes. "Director Eastwood has requested that the agent be shown the latest scene before we release the house tomorrow. Richie, since this is your case you'll be meeting them in half an hour at the location."

Richie saluted Captain Denbrough. "Aye, aye, Captain."

"Ben, Bev, you guys continue your investigation into the Mellon murder. We don't know if this is connected yet or not."

Detectives Ben Hanscom and Beverly Marsh both nodded.

"The rest of you will each be receiving a photo of Pennywise on your way out, so keep on the lookout for him while you're on patrol." He nodded over to the department's sketch artist, Stanley Uris, who held a stack of photos. "Alright, let's have a safe day, people."

"And grab some doughnuts on your way out!" Richie called out as everyone began to clear out. "Last time it was my turn for doughnut duty I wound up having to bring the extras to my informants."

When it was just him and Captain Denbrough, he sighed. "So, the DEA is getting involved, huh?"

Captain Denbrough scrubbed a hand over his face. "Yeah, looks like it, Rich. I shouldn't be surprised though. We haven't seen a drug problem this big here in what, 27 years? Not since--" He cut himself off.

Richie placed a hand on Captain Denbrough's shoulder. "You can't keep blaming yourself for that, Bill. Georgie's death wasn't your fault."

Captain Denbrough sighed, but said nothing.

"I promise you, man, I'm doing everything I possibly can to stop it for good this time," Richie continued. "I've got feelers out to all my informants and I've spent day and night trying to trace the source of the drugs, so hopefully this DEA agent will have some insight on how this Pennywise guy works so we can locate him."

Captain Denbrough looked over at the wall clock. "Speaking of, you better get going or else you're gonna be late."

"Right, don't want to keep them waiting." He gave Captain Denbrough a once-over. "You good, buddy?"

Captain Denbrough nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay." He nodded over at the boxes of doughnuts. "Think there's any bear claws left?"

Richie grinned and pulled a white pastry bag out of his inner jacket pocket. "Saved you one."

"Thanks, Rich. You're the best."

"Just remember that when it comes time for my evaluation," Richie joked. "Alright, I'm out of here. I'll report back later."

"Alright, be safe out there."

Richie stopped by his desk for the key to the scene before heading to his red Mustang convertible. He cranked up the radio and sang along down the streets of Derry, turning the music down when he reached the street that the house was on.

He pulled up to the curb, staring at the classic muscle car that was sitting in the drive. _Definitely didn't expect a DEA agent to drive that,_ he thought. He froze as the door opened and the most attractive man Richie had ever seen got out of the car.

 _Hot guy hot guy hot guy hot guy hot guy hot guy,_ his brain chanted as the guy shut the door. 

The man appeared shorter than Richie's 6'1 and was thin but muscular, with short, curly dark hair and brown eyes. He was wearing jeans and a plain black t-shirt with a black leather jacket/hoodie combo over it.

Richie suddenly wanted to feel the man's neatly trimmed facial hair between his thighs. _I am so fucked,_ he thought.

He quickly killed the engine and stepped out of his car, plastering a grin on his face and bounding up the driveway. "Hey, man, how's it going?"

The man appraised him. "You're from the Derry PD?" he asked incredulously.

"Yeah, sure am." Richie stuck a hand out. "You must be the agent sent to help with the Pennywise case."

The agent looked at him like he was contagious before seeming to steel himself and shaking Richie's hand. "Agent Edward Kaspbrak, DEA." He reached in his back pocket as he spoke and pulled out his badge, flashing his identification as well.

Richie started digging in his pockets. "Ahh, shit, hang on, I've got my credentials around here somewhere…"

He turned and ran back to his car, grabbing his wallet off the passenger seat where he had tossed it before leaving the station. "Yeah, ok, here we go, since we're being all official and shit… Detective Richie Tozier, Derry PD." He quickly showed his badge before stuffing it in his jacket pocket. "So, uh, Agent Kaspbrak, how are you liking Derry so far?"

Agent Kaspbrak gave him a withering stare. "Well, let's see, I drove 9 hours straight and got 2 hours of sleep at the one piss-poor excuse for a hotel in this town..."

"Ahh, yeah, the good old Derry Townhouse," Richie replied. "You know, I'm not exactly sure anyone actually works there."

"Not to mention the fact that I couldn't even shower properly this morning because I'm pretty sure someone had been stabbed in the bathroom. Then I get here and the liaison from the local PD is late meeting me."

"Jesus dude, it was only by about two minutes," Richie muttered.

"What was that?"

"I said shall we head on in?" Richie swept an arm towards the door and gestured for Agent Kaspbrak to head inside, trying resolutely not to stare at his ass as Richie followed behind him.


	3. Chapter Three - Eddie

_ How the fuck is this guy a cop? _ Eddie thought as he stepped underneath the crime scene tape and entered the house. Richie Tozier was not like any police detective Eddie had ever encountered. He was tall and broad with dark, shaggy hair and crystal-clear blue eyes, and dressed like an overgrown frat boy who had just rolled out of bed and threw on the first clothes he found on his bedroom floor. 

Eddie briefly closed his eyes.  _ Just focus on the case _ . He examined the living room then the kitchen, both of which appeared to be in order. He pulled out a pair of blue latex gloves and quickly put them on. "Where was the body found?"

"Uhh, through here," Detective Tozier replied, leading him down the hall. He waited in the doorway as Eddie stepped into the bedroom. "The victim lived alone -- deputies responded to a noise complaint from the neighbor about loud music and when the resident didn't answer the door it became a welfare check."

Eddie stooped down to examine underneath the bed. "Was anyone else here the night of the incident?"

"No fingerprints other than the victim's and the neighbors didn't report seeing anyone else."

"And nothing else was found?"

"Forensics did a sweep of the house but didn't find anything of interest besides the pills." 

Eddie had suspected as much but had still wanted to conduct his own examination of the scene. "And the others?"

"Nothing was found at any of the previous scenes. No drugs or drug paraphernalia, no unusual fingerprints, nothing. We presume this guy was a new, lower-level dealer and decided to 'sample the merchandise', as it were."

"Hmm." Eddie stood and removed his gloves, stuffing them back in his jacket pocket. "Okay, we're done here. I'd like to see copies of the reports from the other scenes."

"Ok, those are back at the station…" Detective Tozier gestured towards the front of the house. "Did you want to ride with me? We can drop your car off at the Townhouse first."

Eddie automatically opened his mouth to say 'fuck no' but then thought about the fact that he really didn't want to risk an accident in a strange town by being distracted because he was tired. "Ok, that's fine," he replied.

Detective Tozier nodded. "Ok then."

Eddie got into his car and headed back to the Townhouse with Detective Tozier following close behind. He grabbed his messenger bag and locked his car before heading over to Detective Tozier's Mustang.

He had fully expected it to be littered with burger wrappers and drink cups, but the car was surprisingly neat and tidy, unlike its owner.

Eddie settled in and sent a text to Director Eastwood.  _ Checked out the scene. No new information gleaned. Heading to Derry PD to look over reports from the other scenes. _

A few seconds later a reply came through.  _ Ok. Keep me posted. How're the locals? _

Eddie glanced over at Detective Tozier, who was humming quietly to himself and tapping his fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of some 80's song that was on the radio.  _ I'll tell you later. _

He locked his phone back and looked up as Detective Tozier pulled into the Derry PD's parking lot and parked in a reserved spot. 

Derry's police department was a small, rectangular brick building with "Derry PD" in raised black typography next to a single, glass front door. The business office hours and 24-hour non-emergency number were listed on the window beside it, along with "In case of emergency dial 911."

Eddie thought it was...quaint.

He slung his messenger bag across his body and followed Detective Tozier into the building.

"Hey there, Patty," Detective Tozier greeted the receptionist. "How's it going?"

"Hiya, Richie," the receptionist replied. "Been pretty slow today. Just the usual traffic tickets and whatnot."

Detective Tozier nodded then gestured towards Eddie. "This is Agent Kaspbrak from the DEA. He's going to be helping out with the Pennywise case. Agent Kaspbrak, this is Patricia Uris."

"Nice to meet you, ma'am," Eddie said.

"Same to you, Agent," Patty replied. 

"Agent Kaspbrak would like to see copies of the reports from the recent OD scenes," Richie said. 

"Ok, no problem." Patty began typing on her keyboard. "I'll print them out and bring them right to you. Conference room?"

"Yeah, that'd be great. Thanks, Patty, you're a peach."

Detective Tozier led Eddie behind the desk and through another door to the back offices, stopping by an open door and knocking on the door frame. Eddie could see _Captain_ _William Denbrough_ printed on the silver doorplate. "Hey, Cap. Got a minute?"

The man behind the desk looked up from where he was reading what looked like reports. "Yeah, Rich, what's up?"

"Just wanted to introduce you to Agent Kaspbrak, here."

"Hi, Agent Edward Kaspbrak, DEA," Eddie said, stepping forward and reaching to shake Captain Denbrough's hand.

"Captain Bill Denbrough, nice to meet you," Captain Denbrough replied. "Thanks for coming in to assist."

"Mmm hmm," Eddie replied.

"Agent Kaspbrak wants to take a look at the recent OD reports," Richie explained.

Captain Denbrough nodded. "Be our guest. Hopefully you'll be able to spot something that we haven't been able to."

"We'll be in the conference room if anyone needs us." Detective Tozier turned back towards Eddie and led him down a short hallway. "Would you like some coffee or a doughnut?"

Eddie couldn't help but smile. "Coffee and doughnuts? Isn't that kind of stereotypical?" Detective Tozier shrugged. "Maybe, but Derry Doughnuts has the best cronuts in the world."

Eddie shrugged. He hadn't eaten breakfast and he could feel his blood sugar crashing as they spoke. "Okay then."

He had recently allowed himself to start eating doughnuts after he had learned that the allergies he had believed to have all his life weren't real.

Detective Tozier led him to a small break room where a box of doughnuts lay on a counter next to a Keurig. He grabbed a to-go cup and handed it to Eddie, then gestured to the well-stocked carousel of coffee pods. "Here, pick whatever you want."

Eddie selected his pod, placing it in the Keurig and setting it to brew before carefully selecting a doughnut. He waited as Detective Tozier brewed his coffee, looking on in horror as the man added an ungodly amount of sugar to his cup. "Do you  _ want _ diabetes?" he exclaimed in horror. 

Detective Tozier laughed as he added a splash of cream. "I've always had a bit of a sweet tooth."

"A  _ bit? _ "

Detective Tozier grabbed a doughnut for himself and picked up his cup. "Come on, this way."

Eddie followed Detective Tozier down to the conference room, setting his doughnut and coffee on the table and rummaging around in his messenger bag for a highlighter and pen.

A few moments later, Patty came in with two stacks of papers. "Here you go, gentlemen," she said, handing Eddie and Detective Tozier each a stack. "Let me know if you need anything else, Agent Kaspbrak."

"Thanks," Eddie replied before she shut the door behind her.

"Shall we?" Detective Tozier asked, gesturing to the stacks of reports.

Eddie reached for the first report. "Let's do this."


	4. Chapter Four - Richie

"Ok, so what exactly are we looking for?" Richie asked. 

"Patterns," Agent Kaspbrak replied, sliding a notepad and pen over to Richie. "Write down any kind of personal details that may possibly connect our victims or give a clue as to the location of the source of the drugs -- each victim's addresses, their frequented places, their known associates, anything that may pinpoint a common location."

"Got it. You want to know if Pastor Goodwin over at the Lutheran Church is secretly harboring a notorious drug lord."

Agent Kaspbrak gave him a look. "Detective Tozier--"

"Richie, please--"

" _Detective Tozier_ ," he repeated, "can you please take this seriously?"

Richie fell silent. "Just trying to add some levity to this shit," he eventually said. "I'll go fuck myself." He then busied himself in paperwork.

Richie spent the next four hours dividing his attention between his reports and Agent Kaspbrak.

Agent Kaspbrak would fiddle with the pen in his hand as he read, absentmindedly chewing on it before taking it out of his mouth and pursing his lips as he made a note on his notepad before starting all over again.

Richie had never really had an oral fixation, but he was rapidly developing one.

When he finally couldn't stand it any longer, he threw his pen down. "Hey, how about we call it for today?" he said.

Agent Kaspbrak looked up from the report he was currently scouring, pen dangling from his lips. "What time is it?"

"It's almost 5:00," Richie replied. "Let's leave this stuff here and we'll pick it up again tomorrow."

Agent Kaspbrak shook his head. "I'll take the rest of these back to the Townhouse with me, work on them there."

"There's no point in stressing yourself out over them. Just leave them for tonight."

"I can't do that."

Richie grinned. "Come on, man, the reports will still be there tomorrow."

"And somebody else may be _dead_ by tomorrow!" Agent Kaspbrak snapped.

Richie fell silent and stood. "Let me go sign off shift and I'll bring you back to the Townhouse," he said quietly.

Agent Kaspbrak winced. "Hey, man, I--"

Before Agent Kaspbrak could say anything else Richie was already out the door.

By the time he had signed out and briefed the detective on the night shift, Agent Kaspbrak was waiting for him by the reception desk. Richie marched past him without a word and walked to his car as Agent Kaspbrak rushed to catch up with his long strides.

Richie started his car and waited for Agent Kaspbrak to put on his seatbelt before pulling out of the lot, driving to the Townhouse in silence and ignoring the furtive glances that Agent Kaspbrak kept giving him.

He stopped in front of the Townhouse, not even bothering to put the car in park as he waited for Agent Kaspbrak to get out.

Finally, Agent Kaspbrak sighed. "I, uh, I just realized I never got your number." He rubbed the back of his neck. "You know, in case I have a breakthrough with the reports or if we get called in on a new case or something."

Richie dug his wallet out of his back pocket. He pulled out a business card and silently passed it to Agent Kaspbrak, who in turn took his own business card out of a leather business card holder and passed it to Richie. "So I guess I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

"Mmm," Richie replied noncommittally.

Agent Kaspbrak sat quietly for another moment before opening the door. "Ok, well, goodnight then."

"Uh huh."

Richie waited until Agent Kaspbrak had gotten inside before leaving. He stopped by the local diner for a burger and some fries before heading home to his empty house, stopping by the kitchen to grab a beer before heading to the living room. He cracked open his beer as he stared at Agent Kaspbrak's business card.

**Edward Kaspbrak**

**DEA Field Agent**

**(Phone) 202-555-4730**

**(Cell) 202-555-3976**

**e.kaspbrak@dea.gov**

Richie tossed the card down next to his phone and took a sip of his beer. 

He seriously considered going out to the local bar to see if any of his informants were around and had any new information for him, but he had another early shift the next day so he decided against it. _They know how to contact me._

He kept replaying the day's interactions with Agent Kaspbrak in his head, trying to figure out where he had gone wrong. _You're just some inept small-town cop who can't solve a case,_ a voice whispered in his head. _That's all he'll ever see you as. He's gone as soon as this case is solved._

"Shut up, _shut up_ ," Richie muttered.

His fingers itched for a cigarette. In Richie's younger days he had used nicotine as a form of self-medication for his anxiety, but had since found healthier coping mechanisms. During really bad days like these, however, he still felt that craving for the sweet feel of nicotine entering his lungs.

He flexed his fingers and stood, grabbing his phone and Agent Kaspbrak's business card before heading to his bedroom.He plugged his phone in to charge and pulled up his "Relaxation" Spotify playlist, connecting his phone to his Bluetooth-enabled record player, then stripped down and headed into his en-suite bathroom.

He turned the shower on as hot as he could possibly stand it and stood under the spray as the music filtered towards him, scrubbing the day and his negative thoughts off of his body.

 _You're a good cop, Richie,_ Bill had told him once after Richie had had a breakdown in his office after a drug bust gone wrong. _And an even better man. You're making a difference in this community._

After his muscles had started to relax and his head became clearer, Richie washed his hair and shut the water off, stepping out of the shower and wrapping a towel around his lower half.

He had just walked back in his bedroom to get ready to go to sleep when he noticed he had a new text message from an unsaved number. _Could you please meet me at the Townhouse tomorrow morning before your shift? Say, 7 AM?_

A quick glance at the business card that was now laying on his nightstand confirmed that the text was, in fact, from Agent Kaspbrak. 

Richie sighed and began to towel-dry his hair as he contemplated his response. After a few minutes, however, the guilt of not having responded already began to eat at him and he picked up his phone, typing out a quick reply. _Ok. 7 AM._

A new message came through almost immediately. _Thank you. See you tomorrow._

 _See you tomorrow,_ Richie replied back before saving Agent Kaspbrak's number in his contacts list.

He disconnected his phone from his record player, changed into a pair of boxers, and was asleep within minutes.


	5. Chapter Five - Eddie

Eddie watched out of the Townhouse's lobby window as Detective Tozier --  _ Richie, _ his mind supplied helpfully -- pulled out of the lot. He sighed.  _ Fucking fantastic. Way to make things awkward, fucknuts. _

Eddie tended to get hyper-focused while on a case -- Nikki had once told him that was what made him a great agent.  _ I get it, honey, _ she had said one day during Eddie's divorce proceedings while Eddie was over at her house for dinner.  _ But you can't get so wrapped up in it that it becomes your life. You deserve a break every now and then. _

The next day, Eddie had requested desk duty.

He passed by the empty-as-usual front desk and headed up the stairs to his room. This case  _ was _ important -- He knew that the number of OD deaths in Derry had dramatically increased in the past year, but was still shocked to see the stacks of files that he and Detective Tozier had each received. 

He pulled out his phone and called Director Eastwood.

"Agent Kaspbrak, got some news for me?" she answered in lieu of 'hello'.

"Unfortunately not yet, ma'am. Like I said earlier, there wasn't anything new at the latest crime scene, but Detective Tozier and I spent most of the afternoon reviewing case files to check for possible connections between the victims and will continue looking into them tomorrow."

"Detective Tozier? Is that the local liaison that you're working with?"

"Yes, he's been lead on the investigation so I'll be working with him throughout."

"Ok, Agent, keep me posted."

"Yes, ma'am."

"So what's this Detective Tozier like?"

Eddie huffed out a breath. "He's  _ infuriating _ . He's tall, and loud, and dresses like an overgrown frat boy. I honestly don't even understand why or how he became a police officer." 

"Well, have you asked him?"

Eddie froze. "What?"

"Have you asked him why he became a police officer? Have you talked to him at all outside of asking him a few questions about the case despite literally spending all day with him?"

"Uh…"

"Eddie." Eddie would have bet money on Director Eastwood currently pinching the bridge of her nose and silently asking for strength. "Really?" 

"You know it's hard for me to talk to new people!"

"You talked to me just fine the first time."

" _ I was drunk! _ " Eddie hissed. "I should've known when I found out that the 'small gathering' my roommate was dragging me out to was at Phi Kappa Phi that it was going to be a nightmare. I still can't smell Jack Daniels without gagging."

Director Eastwood chuckled. "Well,  _ one _ good thing came out of that party, at least."

Eddie smiled. "Yeah, it really did." 

"Eddie, hon,  _ please _ try to get to know the local PD. We don't know how long you'll be out there so there's no reason in making yourself miserable by working yourself to death. Do go out and have fun. It's still early, why don't you give Detective Tozier a call and see if he wants to meet up for dinner?"

"Um, he may currently be not speaking to me because I yelled at him when he suggested that we leave the rest of the case files till tomorrow."

Director Eastwood sighed.  _ "Edward. _ "

Eddie winced. "I know, Nikki. Believe me, I know. I had dropped my car off at the hotel and ridden with him to the station, so yeah, sitting in his car in total silence on the way back was  _ loads _ of fun. I already feel like a complete asshole, no need to add to it."

He glanced at the clock. "Look, can I call you tomorrow? I really did want to get through the rest of these files tonight."

"Ok. And Eddie?"

"Yeah?"

"Make an effort, ok?"

"I will, Nikki. I promise."

"Talk to you tomorrow, Agent. Good night."

"Yes, ma'am. Good night."

Eddie hung up the phone and sighed.  _ But first, food. _

He found a small diner within walking distance of the Townhouse, where he picked at a salad before walking back to the Townhouse and up back to his room. 

He pulled out his notebook and drew lines for columns.  _ Victim's name… Occupation… Frequented places… Known associates. _

He started reading over the report. _ Officer in Charge of Investigation: Det. Richard Tozier. _

Eddie sighed and set the report down.  _ Fuck.  _ There was no way Eddie was going to get through those reports tonight.

He got up and pulled a pair of sweatpants out of his suitcase, which he hadn't yet had time to unpack, and headed towards the bathroom. 

He cleaned up as best he could (Eddie wasn't kidding when he had said that he thought someone had been stabbed in the bathroom, so he wasn't about to try to use the shower) and pulled his sweatpants on before heading back into his room.

He looked over at his phone.  _ Make an effort, _ Director Eastwood's voice said sternly in his head.

Eddie sighed and pulled out his business card holder, where he had tucked Detective Tozier's card. He saved Detective Tozier's information to a new contact and pulled up a new message thread.  _ What the fuck am I supposed to say? 'Sorry I was mean to you'? 'Please don't file a formal complaint with my boss'? 'I think you're fucking hot and want to jump your bones'? _

Eddie was still coming to terms with his sexuality, but he was pretty sure that last one was not something Detective Tozier would appreciate. He didn't need a sexual harassment claim in addition to a behavioral complaint. Finally he settled on,  _ Could you please meet me at the Townhouse tomorrow morning before your shift? Say, 7 AM? _ There. Short, to the point, and he even fucking said  _ please _ .

He stared at his phone, willing it to light up. Finally about 10 minutes later, a new text message came in.

Eddie immediately grabbed it and swiped off the screensaver.  _ Ok. 7 AM. _

"Oh thank Christ," Eddie muttered before replying.  _ Thank you. See you tomorrow. _

He smiled when his phone lit up again.  _ See you tomorrow. _

_ I'm sorry about today,  _ Eddie typed out then quickly deleted. He could apologize in person the morning.

He set his phone down and settled down to sleep.


	6. Chapter Six - Richie

Agent Kaspbrak was already standing outside the Derry Townhouse when Richie pulled up the next morning at 6:55 AM.

Richie sighed.  _ So much for being early. _ He pulled into a parking spot right by the door and got out. 

Agent Kaspbrak looked up from his phone. "Morning," he said, sliding it into his pocket.

"Uh, yeah. Morning," Richie replied. "Hope you haven't been waiting long."

In truth, Richie had left his house 20 minutes prior and had been circling the block for the past 15 so as not to arrive  _ too _ early, so he knew that Agent Kaspbrak hadn't been outside the last time he had passed by the Townhouse.

"No, no, not long at all."

Richie stuffed his hands in his jacket pocket. "So, what did you want to meet about?"

Agent Kaspbrak blinked. "Oh, uh, I was wondering if you'd had breakfast yet?"

Richie shook his head. "Nah, I was just gonna grab some coffee and a leftover doughnut at the station later."

"Um, then maybe we could go to that diner down the road? Have something to eat before we start our day?"

Richie recognized an olive branch when he saw one, so he relented. "Okay. Want to ride with me again today? That way we could head straight to the station instead of you having to walk back here."

Richie could see a hint of something akin to relief on Agent Kaspbrak's face. "Yeah, that sounds great."

"Ok, cool. Let's go then."

Richie whistled as he and Agent Kaspbrak strolled back to Richie's car and made the short journey to the diner, which ironically enough, was called 'The Diner'.

Agent Kaspbrak led Richie to a booth in the back corner of the diner, where a bored-looking server, who Richie recognized as Greta Keene from high school, came to take their order. "Yeah, what can I getcha?" she asked, blowing a bubble with her gum before gnawing on it like a cow chewing their cud.

"Uh, yeah, can I get the bacon, egg, and toast platter, eggs over easy, side of pancakes, and coffee with cream?" Richie asked. 

Greta turned to Agent Kaspbrak and eyed him with interest. "And for you?"

Agent Kasbrak studied the menu. "Oh, uh, can I get an egg white omelette with mushrooms and onions with the fruit cup and multi-grain toast? And orange juice and coffee, thanks."

Greta took their menus and Richie rolled his eyes as she purposely sashayed her hips as she sauntered off.

Agent Kaspbrak raised an eyebrow. "Friend of yours?"

Richie snorted. "Far from it. More like demon bitch from Derry High hell."

"Ah."

They sat in silence until Greta came back with their drinks, setting a carafe of coffee on the table along with a bowl of creamer cups and Agent Kaspbrak's orange juice.

She set a straw down in front of Agent Kaspbrak with a wink. "Let me know if you need anything else."

Agent Kaspbrak gave Greta a tight smile. "Thanks."

Greta dropped her smile as she glanced at Richie before walking away.

Agent Kaspbrak fiddled with his straw paper as Richie poured them both a cup of coffee. "Look, about yesterday… I, uh, I get so focused when I'm on a case that they kind of consume me, especially this Pennywise case. I've been tracking this guy for a while now and just when I think I've figured out his next move he becomes a ghost. That combined with my lack of sleep the night before…" He shook his head and glanced up at Richie. "Wait, shit. That sounds like I'm making excuses. What I'm trying to say is that I'm sorry for my behavior yesterday. We have to work together on this case and I'm sure I haven't been making it easy."

Richie shrugged and reached for the sugar, adding several packets to his coffee before grabbing a cup of creamer. "It's fine, Agent Kaspbrak."

"Eddie."

Richie looked up, midway through opening his creamer. "What?"

Agent Kaspbrak briefly glanced out the window before looking back at Richie. "Eddie," he repeated. "You can call me Eddie."

Richie added his creamer to his coffee before responding. "Ok then, Eddie it is."

"Thanks... Richie."

Richie reveled in the way his name rolled off of Eddie's tongue, the purse of Eddie's lips as he formed the 'R'.  _ Ok, slow down, cowboy. He's still just being nice. _

Eddie took a sip of his coffee and winced slightly at the heat. "So, uh, I didn't get through any of the other reports last night," he admitted. "I figure we can maybe spend the day knocking the rest of them out then comparing the victims' lives?"

Richie nodded, taking a sip of his own coffee. "Yeah, that's fine. I already checked in with Sandusky, no new drug arrests or ODs were reported last night."

"Good, good. That's...good."

"Yeah."

They paused in their conversation as Greta brought them their breakfasts.

Eddie eyed Richie's plate. "That looks like a heart attack waiting to happen," he remarked as Richie drowned his pancakes in syrup.

Richie could hear a wistful-sounding implication in Eddie's tone, but let it slide. Instead, he snorted and pointed a piece of bacon towards Eddie's own plate. "At least mine looks like it has  _ flavor _ to it," he replied jokingly. "Yours looks like it was puked up and thrown on a plate. There's no way I could eat that."

Eddie sighed. "I'm...used to it. I grew up on similar stuff."

"Oh, were your parents health nuts or something?"

"Something like that." Eddie speared a piece of his omelette and stuck it in his mouth, chewing carefully.

They ate in comfortable silence until Greta came to check on them (or rather check on Eddie and pointedly ignore Richie) and ask how they were splitting the check.

"That'll be one check, thanks," Eddie told her, handing her his credit card before Richie could answer. 

"Here, let me give you cash for mine," Richie said.

Eddie shook his head. "It's on me."

Richie snorted. "You're buying me an apology breakfast?"

Eddie grinned. "Yeah, exactly. 'I'm sorry for being an asshole' pancakes."

Richie chuckled and leaned back in the booth. "Apology accepted, then."

"Good."

Eddie signed the credit card receipt and he and Richie left the diner.

"Thanks again for breakfast," Richie said.

"No problem." Eddie rubbed his hands together. "Alright, let's get to the station and finish reviewing those case files."

As they rode to the station, Richie chanced a glance at Eddie, who seemed infinitely more relaxed than he had yesterday.  _ Maybe this will work out after all _ , he thought as he pulled into his parking spot _. _

"I'mma go sign in for shift," Richie said as he led Eddie towards the conference room. "Want another coffee before we get started?"

"Yeah, sure," Eddie replied. 

"Same kind as yesterday?"

"Mmhmm. That's fine."

Richie signed in and went to fix their coffees, whistling as he entered the break room.

He brewed their coffees, adding his requisite amount of sugar and cream to his own, and headed to the conference room, where Eddie was in the process of dividing up the reports. Richie set Eddie's in front of him and took a sip of his own before setting it down.

Once Eddie and Richie fell into a comfortable rhythm the day went by quickly. They finished reviewing the reports right before noon and decided to take a break for lunch.

They walked down a sandwich shop then down to the park, settling on a bench near the Paul Bunyan statue.

"Creepy," Eddie remarked.

Richie chuckled. "I know, right? When I was little I thought that it was going to come to life and try to kill me."

Eddie eyed the statue once again. "I can see why."

They finished their sandwiches and headed back to the station, where they spent the afternoon inputting the victims' information into the database Eddie had had one of the DEA's I.T. people develop before leaving for Derry. Richie would read the victim's information off of the notepads as Eddie typed it into the database, occasionally stopping for a coffee or bathroom break.

Right before five, Eddie sighed and rubbed at his eyes as he finished inputting the data from the last of the victims. "I'll just let the filtering software run overnight," he said. "With a year's worth of data it's gonna take a while anyway." He stood and stretched, exposing a small strip of skin on his stomach where his shirt had ridden up. "Is there somewhere I can leave my laptop so the software can run?"

Richie blinked when he registered that Eddie had asked him a question. "Uh, yeah, you can leave your laptop plugged in in my office and I'll lock it before we leave for the day."

"Ok, great. Thanks."

They packed up the rest of their stuff and headed to Richie's office. Eddie plugged his laptop in, then placed it on Richie's desk before setting the program to run while Richie went to sign off shift.

As they were heading back to the Townhouse, Richie asked, "hey, uh, I don't know if you have plans for tonight, but a group of us have dinner together every Thursday, and I was wondering if you'd like to join us?"

Eddie thought for a second, then nodded. "Yeah, sure, I'd love to."

"How does Chinese sound?"

"Yeah, that sounds good."

Richie grinned. "Ok, great. I'll pick you back up at, say, 6:45?"

"Cool. See you then."

Richie shot off a text to Bill.  _ Add one more to our dinner reservation tonight. I invited Agent Kaspbrak to join us. _

Bill's response was instantaneous.  _ I KNEW IT! _

Richie had come out to the Losers in high school, but sometimes he really regretted it, especially when they figured out when he was interested in a hot guy.  _ Fuck off, Bill. Nothing's going on between me & Agent Kaspbrak. _

_...Yet. ;) _

Richie rolled his eyes.  _ Alright, chill Denbrough. _

Richie went home to get ready, and well, if he deigned to actually shower and change clothes rather than going to the restaurant in the same clothes he had worn at work all day as usual, that didn't mean anything, right?


	7. Chapter Seven - Eddie

When Eddie got upstairs to his room he grit his teeth and braved the shower, resolving to buy some bleach the following day and scrub the hell out of the thing before setting foot in it again, then shaved and dressed in a mint-green polo shirt, red zip-up jacket, and grey slacks. 

_I look like I'm dressed for a date,_ he thought as he scrutinized his appearance in the mirror. He considered changing his clothes but realized that he didn't have time and that Richie would be arriving to pick him up soon, so he quickly threw on his sneakers in order to tone down his look and headed downstairs.

Richie pulled into the lot a couple of minutes later. "Evening, Eds," he said.

Eddie rolled his eyes at the nickname but said nothing as he got into the car. "Evening, Richie."

"You, uh… you look nice." Richie made a circle around his face. "Different without the facial hair."

"Oh, um, thanks." Eddie hoped Richie couldn't see his blush. 

He was quickly realizing that just about everywhere in Derry took about 5 minutes to get to by car, so Eddie hadn't really had time for his anxiety to start flaring up when Richie pulled into The Jade of the Orient's parking lot.

"Alright, you ready to meet the rest of the gang?" Richie asked as they headed down the hallway to the private room in the back.

"Uh, yeah, I guess," Eddie mumbled in reply as they entered.

Richie picked up the hammer that was attached to the decorative gong and swung it, drawing the attention of the 5 people already in the room. "This meeting of the Losers' Club has officially begun," he announced.

"Richie!" the group chorused.

"Hey, guys. This is Edward Kaspbrak, the agent the DEA sent over to help with the Pennywise case. Eddie, you already met our esteemed leader, Bill."

"Nice to see you again, Agent," Bill said with a smile.

"Same to you, Captain," Eddie replied.

Richie pointed out the other people as they were introduced. "And we also have Lieutenant Mike Hanlon, homicide detectives Beverly Marsh and Ben Hanscom, and rounding out the Losers Club, our esteemed sketch artist and tech guru, Stanley Uris."

Eddie shook each person's hand as they were introduced, pausing when he got to Stan. "Uris?" he said as they all sat. "As in related to Patricia?"

Stan nodded, a soft smile blooming on his face. "Yeah. She's my wife."

Richie leaned over Eddie and started making exaggerated kissy faces at Stan.

"Fuck off, Richie," Stan said good-naturedly, gently shoving Richie's face away from him as everyone else laughed.

"So, Mike, how was Florida?" Detective Hanscom asked.

"Oh, it was beautiful," Lieutenant Hanlon replied. "The water was nothing like I'd ever seen before."

"Well, we're glad you're back, buddy," Bill added. "That reminds me, Audra told me to invite you all over for dinner next Sunday night after the school play is over. Agent Kaspbrak, you're more than welcome too if you're still in town."

"Bill's wife is the drama teacher over at Derry High," Richie whispered in Eddie's ear.

Eddie held back a shiver at Richie's warm breath on his neck. He nodded at Bill. "Thanks, Captain. But I have a question. Why do you call yourselves the Losers Club?"

"I'm glad you asked that, Eds," Richie replied. "You see, this here group goes all the way back to elementary school, where a young Richard Tozier met up with an equally young William Denbrough and Stanley Uris and formed a lifelong bond--"

"Beep beep, Richie," Stan interrupted, then explained, "Richie, Bill, and I all met in elementary school. Then we met Ben, Bev, and Mike in middle school. We were all bullied as kids, so we decided to take back the term 'loser' and called ourselves 'The Losers Club'."

"Wow, and you all wound up joining the police academy together? How did that wind up happening?"

Furtive glances were exchanged around the table. Eddie felt like he was missing something important, but dismissed it as a question to ask Richie in private later.

Detective Marsh held up her beer. "I'd like to make a toast," she began, "to the Losers Club, reunited after two very long weeks. And to Agent Kaspbrak, welcome. It's very nice to have you here, despite the circumstances." The others all nodded in sincere agreement.

"To the Losers' Club, and our new honorary member!" Richie shouted, holding up his beer.

"To the Loser's Club!" the others chimed in, all clinking their glasses together.

Eddie glanced over at Richie, who was looking at him with an expression Eddie couldn't decipher before he quickly schooled it back into his trademark grin. 

Eddie glanced back at the others. "Thank you for the warm welcome," he said, taking a sip of his glass of wine. 

The last time Eddie had felt such a strong connection with someone had been with Nikki back in college, but right now with Richie and his friends Eddie felt as if he'd known these people all his life. For the first time in a long time, Eddie felt like he was _home_.

The evening went by quickly and the next thing Eddie knew it was time to leave.

"Night, Agent Kaspbrak," Captain Denbrough called out as he headed to his truck. "See ya, Trashmouth!"

"Trashmouth?" Eddie said quizzically as they walked back to Richie's car. 

Richie shrugged. "Childhood nickname. I wanted to be a comedian when I was a kid and told a lot of dirty jokes, usually about people's moms. Stan once told me to 'shut my trash mouth' and it stuck."

Eddie smiled. "They all seem really cool."

Richie watched as Ben's car left the lot. "Yeah, they're the best group of friends I could ever ask for." He opened his car door. "Come on, let's get going. Busy day tomorrow."

Eddie could tell before they got to the Townhouse that something was wrong. He could see lights flashing from down the street and smoke wafting out of one of the windows on the second floor. "Oh no, oh shit," he murmured as they pulled into the lot.

Richie parked and immediately made his way over to an older firefighter who was standing near one of the fire trucks. Eddie briefly thought the man resembled a turtle. 

"Hey, Sam, what's going on?" Richie asked as Eddie caught up with him.

"Electrical fire," the firefighter replied. "Luckily it was contained to a couple of unoccupied rooms."

Richie turned towards Eddie. "Chief Sam Maturin, this is Agent Edward Kaspbrak of the DEA. Eddie, this is Derry Fire Chief Sam Maturin."

Eddie shook the man's hand. "Any word on when people will be able to go back in?" he asked. "I'm on assignment and am staying here."

"The building will be cleared momentarily for occupants to retrieve their belongings," Chief Maturin replied, "but will be closed again until repairs are made since the electricity has been cut off to the building."

Eddie deflated. "Oh, yeah, that makes sense."

"Thanks, Sam," Richie said, leading Eddie away from the Chief. 

Eddie pulled out his phone. "Shit, that means I have to find another hotel."

Richie shrugged. "Just come stay with me."

Eddie looked up at Richie in surprise. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yeah, man. It's just me, so I've got the extra room."

Eddie bit his lip. The Townhouse was the only hotel in Derry, so finding another one in the middle of the night within a close radius that wasn't a bacterial breeding ground wasn't going to be pleasant. "Okay," he finally said.

"Ok then, it's settled. Let's get your stuff and head to my place."

Eddie sent a text to Nikki while they were waiting to be let in the building. _Derry Townhouse caught fire, so staying at Detective Tozier's house until case is over._

Eddie's phone immediately rang. "Nikki?"

"Oh my god, Eddie, are you okay?" Nikki asked.

"Yes, I'm fine." Eddie quickly replied.

"What the hell happened?"

"Electrical fire, apparently. I wasn't here -- I was out at dinner with Detective Tozier and some of the local PD. My room wasn't damaged, so I'm waiting to be allowed to get my stuff, then Detective Tozier and I will be heading to his house."

"Ok, good." Nikki paused. "So I take it that you and Detective Tozier patched things up then?"

Eddie glanced at Richie, who was clearly trying to not listen in on his conversation. "Yeah, everything's fine. I'll talk to you about it later."

"Ok, I'll let you go then so you can get settled. I'll talk to you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, talk to you tomorrow." 

"'Love ya, Eddie. Glad you're ok."

"Thanks, Nikki. Love you too."

Eddie hung up and turned to Richie, who had his hands shoved in his pockets.

"Uh, Sam said you could head in to get your stuff, if you want," Richie said quietly.

"Would you mind helping me pack?" Eddie replied. "I brought two suitcases so it would be faster if we each carried one down."

"Yeah, no problem."

Eddie and Richie made quick work of packing Eddie's things -- Eddie directing Richie to just throw everything from the dresser into a garbage bag and shove it into one of his suitcases as he gathered his suits from the closet and carefully folded them into the other suitcase in order to take them to the dry cleaners in the morning.

Eddie then moved to the bathroom and gathered his toiletry bag, shining the flashlight on his phone around the room to make sure he had gotten everything. "Ok, I think that's everything."

Eddie informed Chief Maturin that he had collected his things and climbed into his car, following behind Richie to his new home for the remainder of his stay in Derry.


	8. Chapter Eight - Richie

"Welcome to Casa de la Tozier," Richie said, unlocking the front door of his childhood home and leading Eddie inside.

Richie had taken over the mortgage on the house from his parents after they had decided to retire, traveling the country in an RV for a while before settling down in Key West. Richie had updated the decor to more fit his tastes rather than his mother's, but deep down the house still had the same welcoming feel to it that it had had when Richie was a child.

He took Eddie's suitcases and placed them near the stairs. "Here, let me give you the grand tour."

He showed Eddie the living room, kitchen, office, and laundry room, then led him upstairs. "Here's the guest bathroom on the right, and..." He paused to flip a lightswitch on in a room across the hall. "...The guest bedroom."

He chewed his lip nervously as Eddie examined the room. This had previously been Richie's childhood room but had been turned into a guest room once Richie had moved into the master. "I don't get a lot of guests, so… just make yourself at home? If you need an extra blanket just ask. There's towels in the closet in the bathroom. I'm right down the hall." 

Eddie turned to him. "Thanks for letting me stay here. I really appreciate it."

"No problem, dude," Richie replied. "So yeah, I'll let you get settled in, and I'll see you in the morning?"

Eddie nodded. "Mind if I use your washer and dryer? I'll have to wash my clothes before I can wear them since they all smell like smoke."

"Oh, shit, man, that's right. Wait here."

Richie ran to his room and grabbed a pair of sweatpants and an old tour t-shirt from a band his dad had taken him to see in the 80's, then brought them back to Eddie. "Here, the sweatpants may be a bit big but there's a drawstring at least, and they're clean, so…" he trailed off. "That way you can at least take a shower while your clothes are washing. Detergent is in the cabinet next to the dryer."

"Oh my god, thank you," Eddie said gratefully, taking the offered clothes from Richie.

Richie headed back to his bedroom and took his own shower in order to get the residual smoke smell from the Townhouse out of his hair.

He walked back downstairs to see Eddie clad in the borrowed sweatpants and t-shirt, the barest hint of a collarbone peeking out of the neckline as he sat cross-legged on the sofa. 

Eddie looked up from where he had been scrolling through his phone. "Hey, thanks again for all the hospitality," he said. "I honestly don't know what I would've done tonight otherwise."

"Hey, us narcotics officers gotta stick together, right?" Richie said jokingly.

Eddie gave a chuckle as the buzzer on the washer sounded. "Right." He got up to move his clothes to the dryer, the sweatpants slung low on his hips despite the drawstring.

Richie tried to no avail to ignore just how damn  _ good _ Eddie looked in his clothes. He swallowed.  _ Girlfriend. He clearly has a girlfriend.  _

Richie moved to the kitchen. "So, how about a drink before bed?"

"Yeah, sure. What do you have?" Eddie asked.

"Bourbon, beer, and wine mostly."

Eddie walked back into the kitchen from the laundry room and took a seat on a barstool. "Bourbon is fine. Neat." 

Richie poured them each two fingers and slid Eddie's glass to him before raising his own. "Bottoms up," he said, draining his glass in one gulp before pouring another.

His eyes slid down Eddie's throat, watching his Adam's apple bob enticingly as he drank his own glass of liquor.  _ Jesus, calm the fuck down, Tozier. _ "Hopefully that program of yours will find some matches between the OD victims," he said. "The faster we solve this case, the faster you can get back to DC and the faster we can get back to normal around here."

Something akin to hurt flashed across Eddie's face before it morphed into determination. "Yeah, I'm ready to put Pennywise behind bars."

He stood. "I'm gonna head to bed. See you in the morning?"

"Yeah." Richie replied. "See ya in the morning."

"'Night, Richie."

"'Night, Eddie."

Richie watched as Eddie headed upstairs. He sighed and collected their glasses, giving them a cursory rinse before placing them in the drying rack.

He trudged up the stairs, pausing just outside Eddie's door before sighing and continuing to his bedroom. As soon as this case was over he was going out and getting laid in order to get Agent Hottie off of his mind.


	9. Chapter Nine - Eddie

Eddie awoke the next morning from some of the best sleep he had gotten in years. He stretched and groaned, burrowing his face in his pillow.  _ Damn, finally some peace and quiet in this godforsaken Townhouse, _ he thought groggily before recalling the events of the evening before.  _ No. Not the Townhouse,  _ Richie's _ house, _ he thought before blinking his eyes open. _ I'm in Richie's house. I'm wearing Richie's clothes _ .

He got up and padded downstairs to the laundry room, being careful not to make too much noise and wake Richie up since it was early.

He turned the dryer back on in order to re-fluff his clothes and sat on the sofa, scrolling through the emails on his phone and replying to the important ones.

After the dryer sounded, he gathered his clothes and brought them upstairs, carefully folding each piece before putting them in the dresser in the guest room. By this point, he could hear movement coming from Richie's room, so he took another shower, got dressed, and headed back downstairs.

Richie was sitting at the kitchen table, nursing a cup of coffee. "Morning, Agent," he said with a smile. "Sleep ok?"

Eddie nodded. "That was honestly the best night's sleep I've gotten in a while. Normally I don't sleep well in unfamiliar places."

"Glad to hear you slept well, then." Richie pointed to the coffee pot on the counter. "Help yourself."

"Thanks."

Eddie poured some coffee into the cup that had been left on the counter for him and sat next to Richie at the table. "Do you mind if we stop at a dry cleaners on the way into the station?" he asked. "Both of the suits that I brought are dry-clean only."

"Yeah, no problem," Richie replied. "There's one over on Main Street that should be open by the time we get there."

After they finished their coffee Eddie retrieved his suits from his suitcase in Richie's laundry room.

Richie grabbed his keys off of the peg next to the door. "Ready?"

Eddie nodded.

Richie dropped Eddie off at the dry cleaners while he went to pick up a couple of pastries from the bakery next door.

"Hi, welcome to Derry Cleaners," the clerk, an older, grandmotherly-looking African American woman with stark white hair greeted. "How can I help you?"

"Uh yeah, hi, I need to have these cleaned as soon as possible, please," Eddie replied.

"Ok, just one second." 

Eddie waited patiently as the clerk grabbed an order pad from underneath the counter and began writing up each individual item of clothing. "So you from around here?" she asked.

"Well, actually I'm--"

Eddie was interrupted by the chime above the door as Richie strolled in.

The clerk looked up from writing Eddie's claim ticket when she heard the door behind him. Her face brightened. "Detective Tozier! How are ya?"

"Hey, Ms. Clara," Richie replied, walking up next to Eddie. "How are you this morning?"

"Well I'm just fine now that I've seen your smiling face," the older woman replied. "What brings you in?"

"Actually, I'm just waiting on my friend here," Richie replied, pointing to Eddie. "Ms. Clara, this is Eddie. He's visiting from out of town and will be staying with me for a few days. Eddie, this is Ms. Clara Pierce. She owns the place."

"Nice to meet you," Eddie said.

"Well, now, any friend of Detective Tozier is most certainly welcome here," Ms. Pierce replied with a smile. "I'll have your suits ready by 4 PM today. Can I get a last name for the ticket?"

"You can put Eddie's suits under my name," Richie interjected. "I'll swing by this afternoon after work and pick them up."

Ms. Pierce wrote Richie's name on the claim ticket and handed it to him.

Richie hunched over, folding his arms on the counter. "So how's Brandon?"

"Oh he's doing fine. Made all A's this year, thanks to you."

Eddie glanced over at Richie.  _ Thanks to Richie? _

"Good, glad to hear that. Tell him hi for me, ok?" Richie straightened. "I'm showing Eddie around town today, so we better get going. Nice to see you, Ms. Clara!"

"Thank you again," Eddie told her. "Nice to meet you."

"Same to you."

They left the cleaners and climbed back into Richie's car. 

"Ms. Clara's a sweetheart but is the source of just about every bit of gossip in this town," Richie said as they got into his car. "So I figured it probably wasn't best to introduce you as DEA." 

Eddie nodded. "So is this one of those 'everyone knows everyone' kind of towns, or do you just get a lot of clothes dry-cleaned?"

Richie laughed. "Actually I know Ms. Clara through her grandson, Brandon. I, uh, I helped out with an after-school youth program at the community center this past school year. Math tutoring. Brandon was one of my students."

_ Math tutoring?  _ Eddie took a moment to process. _ Fuck, he's hot, caring, _ and _ smart? _

The few guys Eddie had allowed himself to check out in college before he had shoved his sexuality into a box and threw away the key had all been tall, broad, dark-haired guys that were pretty to look at, but were either dumber than fence posts or total jackasses. Richie, however, was definitely tall, broad, dark-haired,  _ and _ pretty to look at, but was neither dumb nor an asshole, and also was  _ definitely _ checking all of Eddie's boxes at the moment.  _ Shit _ , he thought.  _ I am so screwed. _

He mentally shook his head. _ Case. Focus on the case. Don't let your attraction to Richie distract you from what's important. _

He swallowed. "That's really nice of you."

Richie shrugged. "Just giving back to the community."

Richie signed in at the station and he and Eddie bade Bill and Mike good morning as they headed to Richie's office to retrieve Eddie's computer. "Ok, let's print these reports and get to comparing," Eddie said. "Is there a printer I can connect to?"

"Oh, uh, yeah. The one in the conference room's wireless."

"Ok, great."

They ate their pastries as the reports printed then dove in.

Eddie started reading over his copy of the report. "Anything yet?"

"Well, two of the victims frequented the same hair salon, several had identical known associates, and five of them lived within a 4-block radius of each other, but in a small town like Derry that's not unusual." Richie said.

"So we're basically back to square one," Eddie sighed.

"Not necessarily." Richie grinned. "I also noticed that several of our victims liked to frequent a certain nightclub in town that's been rumored to be the site of some… shady dealings. I figure we could chase all the other leads today during shift, pick up your suits and grab some dinner this afternoon, then we can check out the club tonight."

Eddie thought for a moment, then nodded. "Looks like we're going clubbing then."


	10. Chapter Ten - Richie

Richie and Eddie spent the morning following up on the different connections between victims, but as expected all of them led to dead ends. 

"Hopefully the club will be a more promising lead," Eddie said as they headed back into the station.

"Yeah, that reminds me…" Richie mused. "Yo, Marsh!" he called out to Beverly, who was passing by on the way to her office. "I need your styling expertise for an undercover gig."

"Sure thing, Rich," Beverly said. "What kind of gig?"

"Agent Kaspbrak and I are checking out a lead at The Barrens tonight and I can't exactly do recon there looking like myself, you know?"

Beverly's eyes lit up. "Are you finally letting me do a makeover?"

Richie cringed. "Well, let's not get carried away, but I do need an undercover look for tonight."

Beverly shook her head. "I've got just the thing then. I'll be over at your house at 6:00?"

Richie glanced over at Eddie, who nodded. "Yeah, 6:00 is fine."

"Ok, great."

"If you need a disguise for any undercover work, Bev's your gal," Richie explained to Eddie as Bev disappeared inside her office. "She actually considered studying fashion design for a while before she decided to join the Academy with the rest of us."

He could see Eddie studying him out of the corner of his eye as they headed to Richie's office. "Seems like most of you had had alternate plans when you all decided to join the Academy."

Richie shrugged. "Yeah, well, things happened."

He clapped his hands together. "So! What do you feel like for lunch today, Agent? You've tried 3 out of the 5 main dining options in Derry: The Diner, the sandwich shop, and McDonald's, so we can either do one of those again, we can get pizza, or we can head to Derry Doughnuts for a kolache." 

Eddie shrugged. "Pizza is fine."

Richie pulled out his phone as they entered his office. "Ok, I'll order. What's your preference?"

"Medium pizza, no cheese-- no, wait." Eddie took a deep breath before he amended, "um, medium pizza with  _ extra _ cheese, mushrooms, ham, bacon, and onions."

Richie nodded, dialing the number for Danny's Pizza Pies. "Hey, Danny, it's Richie over at the police station. Yeah, I need to place an order for delivery. Ok yeah, I need a medium pizza with extra cheese, mushrooms…" He looked over at Eddie. "What else was on that?" 

"Ham, bacon & onions," Eddie repeated.

Richie parroted the rest of Eddie's order back to Danny. "And also my usual. Yeah, that's it. Just put it on my credit card on file. Yep, thanks. K, no problem. Bye."

He hung up the phone. "Lunch'll be here in half an hour."

"How about you tell me about The Barrens while we wait?" Eddie suggested. "Then we can spend the afternoon working on our recon plan for tonight."

"Alright, well, it opened as a speakeasy in the 1920s and eventually became a segregated nightclub called The Black Spot during the '50s, but then the building 'mysteriously' caught fire sometime during the late '60s and closed." Richie put air quotes around 'mysteriously' so Eddie would understand his meaning. "The sheriff quickly ruled the fire an accident, and soon after, a man by the name of Richard Rader bought and refurbished the building, where it was used as a warehouse until 1989, when Rader supposedly lost it in a poker game."

Eddie raised an eyebrow. "Supposedly?"

Richie nodded. "Rumor has it that he had been...well, let's say 'pressured' into losing that particular hand. You see, Rader had been friends with the sheriff at the time of the fire, but that sheriff had recently retired." 

Eddie rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "So let me guess: the new sheriff blackmailed him into giving up the deed to the property."

Richie nodded and leaned back in his chair. "Right you are, Eds. The person Rader lost the poker game to was none other than Butch Bowers, the current sheriff at the time. Bowers had been a deputy back in the '60s and had long since suspected that Rader may have had something to do with the Black Spot fire."

He leaned back in his chair. "As the story goes, it had been no secret that Rader had attempted to purchase the Black Spot in the past and was displeased that no matter how much he offered, the owner refused to sell. Whether Bowers really had proof or not that Rader  _ actually _ had something to do with the fire no one knows, but, well..." Richie paused. "Apparently Rader suddenly had a very unlucky hand."

"So what happened to Rader after that?"

Richie leaned forward and placed his elbows on his desk, steepling his fingers under his chin. "His body was found two days later in the Kenduskeag."

Eddie huffed out a breath. "Holy shit."

"Rader's death was ruled a suicide," Richie continued. "A note confessing to arson was found at the scene."

"What about the former sheriff?"

"He issued a public statement through his attorney apologizing for the department's 'mishandling' of the investigation 20 years prior, and no charges were filed."

Eddie rolled his eyes. "Are you  _ serious _ ?"

Richie shrugged. "Bowers was killed later that summer -- robbery gone wrong, apparently, and the killer was never found. In the wake of Bowers's death, instead of electing a new sheriff the town voted to dissolve the Sheriff's Department in favor of creating the Derry PD under the umbrella of the county police commissioner's office."

Eddie nodded. "Ok, so that explains why the highest rank in the PD is Captain then."

"Right," Richie confirmed. "So anyway--" He was interrupted by the sound of his desk phone ringing. "Oh, sorry, one sec." He picked up the receiver. "Tozier."

"Richie, Danny's here with your pizza delivery," Patty said from the other end.

"Ok, thanks, Patty," Richie replied before hanging up and standing. "Pizza's here."

Eddie stood and pulled his wallet out of his pocket, thumbing through his cash. "Here, how much is it for mine?"

Richie waved him off. "Don't worry about it. Think of it as being included in your stay at Derry's newest B&B, only instead of breakfast, I serve you the occasional lunch."

Eddie grimaced. "Shit, I didn't even think about that, sorry. Let me talk to Director Eastwood and she'll make payment arrangements with you for the rest of my stay in town. Is the same rate as the Townhouse ok?"

"Wait, no no no, it was a joke, that's not what I meant at all," Richie said quickly. "I'm not gonna take your money, dude." 

"It's not my money," Eddie countered. "It's the US government's."

"That's beside the point! I had no intention of charging you when I offered up my house. It's not your fault you got displaced."

"Well then, if you're gonna insist on letting me stay with you for free, at  _ least _ let me buy your lunch in thanks."

_ I know how you can thank me, _ Richie thought then quickly shook his head. "If you  _ insist _ on thanking me, then buy me a drink at the club tonight," he said instead.

Eddie stared at him a moment, then finally relented. "Fine."

Richie grinned and led Eddie back out to the reception area to get their food.

"Here, Rich, I signed the receipt for you and left your usual tip," Patty said as she handed Richie his & Eddie's pizzas. "Danny had to get to another delivery."

"Thanks, Patty," Richie replied.

They took their pizzas back to Richie's office.

Eddie eyed Richie's pizza warily. "I should've known that you'd be a 'pineapple on pizza' kind of guy," he said.

"You ever had it?" Richie asked through a mouthful of pineapple-y goodness.

Eddie opened his mouth, then closed it. "...No."

"Then don't knock it till you try it." Richie dug around in his desk drawer, searching for an individually-wrapped package of plastic utensils. "I know I have a knife somewhere in here… Aha. Here we go."

He cut a small piece off of a slice and slid the box towards Eddie. "Want to try it?"

Eddie shrugged. "Sure. Why the hell not?"

Richie watched as he plucked the piece of pizza out of the box and popped it in his mouth, chewing thoughtfully. "It's… surprisingly not terrible," he conceded.

Richie laughed. "Guess that's all the approval I can ask for."

Eddie picked up a slice of his own pizza. "Ok, so back to The Barrens. What happened to the building after Sheriff Bowers was killed?" he asked before taking a bite.

"Well his wife left town after he died, but his son came back a couple of years ago and opened up The Barrens."

Eddie raised an eyebrow. "Right before the drug activity started picking up again. How convenient."

Richie nodded. "Yep. There's been rumblings of it being a hub for drugs pretty much since it opened, but the only couple of times we've been able to get a search warrant we haven't found anything." He shook his head. "It's like he knows we're coming and is able to hide everything."

"So that's why we're going undercover tonight? To see if we can spot anything shady as well as follow up on the lead?"

"Exactly."

"Ok then, so what's the plan?"

They hashed out the details of their undercover operation, then ran the plan by Bill. 

"We don't need anyone on standby or the surveillance team or anything, right?" Bill clarified.

Richie shook his head. "This is strictly following up on a lead and recon. If we find anything I'll be sure to let you know."

"Ok. You guys be careful tonight."

"Will do."

As Richie and Eddie turned to leave Bill's office, Bill added, "Oh, Richie, a word before you go."

"I'll, uh, I'll grab my stuff and meet you out front," Eddie said before leaving Bill's office, closing the door behind him.

Richie nodded and turned back towards Bill. "What's up, Cap?"

Bill sat back in his chair with a grin. "So, Agent Kaspbrak's gonna be staying with you since the Townhouse is closed, huh?"

Richie groaned. "How the fuck do you even know that Eddie is staying with me?" 

Bill raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so he's  _ Eddie _ now."

Richie scrubbed a hand over his face. "Once again, fuck _ off _ , Bill." 

Bill just laughed. "To answer your question though, I took one of Audra's dresses to the cleaners during my lunch break. Ms. Pierce just couldn't stop talking about 'that nice young man who's staying with Detective Tozier'."

Richie shook his head fondly. "Ms. Clara. I should've guessed."

"Just remember, I claim the title of best man at you guys's wedding."

Richie snorted. "Ok fine, I'll admit that he's honestly the most attractive guy I've ever met, but it's never gonna happen, dude. Even if Eddie was  _ remotely _ attracted to guys -- of which, by the way, he has given zero indication, not even a hint of possible bisexuality -- he has a girlfriend. I overheard him tell her he loved her on the phone last night while we were waiting to get his stuff from the Townhouse." Richie shrugged. "By the way, I haven't told him anything about Georgie, in case you were wondering."

"Ok," Bill replied, as if it wasn't  _ totally _ obvious that Richie was trying to change the subject. "It's fine if you do though. It was a long time ago, and it's not like it's actually a big secret."

Richie stood. "I gotta get going. Bev is supposed to come over and help me get ready for tonight."

Bill gave him an appraising look."Be careful, ok, Rich?"

Richie nodded. "Always, Cap."

He left Bill's office and headed back to his office, where Eddie was on the phone. "Yes ma'am," he was saying. "Absolutely, Director." He glanced over at Richie as he entered the office. "Detective Tozier is back, so I'll let you know if we uncover any new leads from our recon tonight. Uh huh. Okay. Bye." He hung up.

"Checking in with the boss?" Richie asked.

Eddie nodded. "Yeah, just letting her in on the new leads. Ready?" 

Richie pulled his keys out of his pocket. "Yeah, let's go."

They gathered their belongings and headed out, stopping at the dry cleaners and the diner before heading back to Richie's house. 

"Drink?" Richie offered, setting their takeout down and turning to the refrigerator.

"Just water, thanks," Eddie replied. 

Richie grabbed a bottle of water for Eddie and a soda for himself and joined Eddie at the table.

They had just finished their burgers when Richie's doorbell rang. 

Richie got up and threw his trash away. "That'll be Bev."

He went to the door and threw it open. "Beverly, my dear, as I live and breathe!" he said in a faux Southern Belle voice. "Come on in."

"Hey, Rich," Bev replied, carrying a couple of bags inside. "Hi, Agent Kaspbrak.

"Hi, Detective Marsh," Eddie replied before turning to Richie. "I'm gonna go get ready, ok?" 

"Ok." 

Richie watched Eddie walk upstairs before turning back to Bev.

Beverly raised an eyebrow.

"Nope." Richie said before she could speak. "Just… no."

Rather than push, Beverly nodded. "You ready to get transformed?"

"Make me beautiful," Richie joked, batting his eyelashes.

"Then let's do this."


	11. Chapter Eleven - Eddie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so heed the warnings for this chapter:
> 
> Descriptions of canonical Muchhausen's-by-proxy
> 
> We're heading into "E" territory with the next chapter -- if that's not your thing, skip to chapter 13.

Eddie took a shower then got dressed, mentally thanking Nikki for insisting that he pack some casual clothing in addition to his usual polos and suits.

He pulled on his black jeans, pairing it with a black graphic t-shirt, brown leather belt with his favorite gold buckle, and running shoes. 

He styled his hair and decided to forego shaving, electing to keep his 5 o'clock shadow instead. 

He stood in front of the mirror and snapped a selfie before sending it to Nikki. _Just an average dude going hit up the local nightclub. 😎_

A few minutes later, Nikki replied back. _Damn, looking good Kaspbrak! 🥵_

He chuckled. _Thanks, Nik._

The three bubbles that indicated that Nikki was texting popped up again. _Aaron says hi, by the way, and wants to know if you want to go to the Wizards season opener with him next month. Scott gave him courtside seats._

Eddie wasn't too into sports, but he did enjoy watching the occasional basketball game. _Tell him hi back, and sure, thanks for the invite._

_You guys be careful tonight, ok?_

_Will do. I'll text you later._

_You'd better. Love you._

_Love you too._

He sent Richie a text before pocketing his phone and wallet. _Heading downstairs. Ready when you are._

He sat on the sofa, pulling out his wallet in order to make sure that anything that could ID him as being with the DEA was tucked away and not immediately visible in case he had to pull out his wallet for something at the club.

A few minutes later, he could hear Richie's and Detective Marsh's voices floating down the stairs.

When Eddie saw Richie his throat went dry. _Oh, fuck me_.

Richie was wearing a light gray henley with an open darker gray button-down over it, blue jeans, and black boots. His wild curls had been trimmed and tamed into submission and his glasses were missing.

Eddie swallowed and took the opportunity to subtly check Richie out. "Wow, you look, uh, you look…" _Like every wet dream I've ever had come to life. "..._ Different."

Richie shrugged. "What can I say? Bev's a miracle worker."

"I had a good canvas," Detective Marsh chimed in, stepping out from behind Richie.

"You look, uh, different too," Richie added, studying Eddie. "More casual."

Eddie smoothed down an invisible wrinkle in his shirt. "Oh, uh, yeah. Always gotta be prepared on assignment, you know? Never know when you may have to go undercover in order to do a deal." 

Detective Marsh squinted at Eddie. "Can I just…" She dug around in her bag, coming up with a black leather wrist cuff with metal snaps, and handed it to Eddie. "Here, Agent, put this on."

Eddie looped it around his wrist and snapped it on.

Detective Marsh nodded. "Perfect. Alright, boys, I'm heading out. Stay safe tonight. Goodnight, Agent Kaspbrak."

Eddie gave her a wave. "Goodnight, Detective Marsh."

Richie gave her a hug. "Thanks, Bev. 'Night."

Eddie watched as Beverly closed the door behind her before turning to Richie. "Ok, so you ready to go?"

Richie checked the watch on his wrist. "Yeah, we can head out now."

"Want me to drive tonight?"

Richie shook his head. "I figure we should probably Uber to the club since both of our cars are so easily recognizable."

Eddie nodded. "Oh yeah, that makes sense."

Richie pulled out his phone and summoned a ride. "Let's walk down to the end of the block to meet the car."

Eddie glanced over at Richie as they walked down to the end of the street. "You, uh, really do look nice tonight."

"Thanks," Richie replied. "You do too." 

Suddenly their ride pulled up. "Shall we?"

Eddie nodded, climbing into the car.

During the ride Eddie kept sneaking glances at Richie, who was looking out the window while tapping out a rhythm on his leg. Eddie began to imagine Richie's big, broad hands cupping the back of his neck as he hauled Eddie in for a kiss, setting his nerve endings on fire as Richie mapped every plane of Eddie's body, until he finally wrapped his long, nimble fingers around Eddie's flushed, leaking--

"Dude, you okay?"

Eddie's eyes snapped up to Richie, who was watching him carefully. _Shit, he caught me staring._ "Um, fine," he replied, angling his body more towards the door so Richie couldn't see his growing erection. "Just thinking about the case." He gave Richie a tight smile. "Sorry, must've zoned out."

He turned fully towards the window, but could see Richie occasionally glance in his direction during the rest of the silent car ride.

As they pulled into the parking lot for The Barrens, Eddie could hear the bass thumping from inside the club. As he stepped out of the car, he winced at the thought of the inevitable headache that he would be getting later.

They walked up to the door, where the bouncer asked for their IDs. 

_Shit, there goes Richie's cover,_ Eddie thought. "What the fuck you need our IDs for?" he quickly said. "We fucking look underage to you?"

Richie glanced over at Eddie. "Eds, it's okay. Chill out, man," he replied, fishing his ID out of his wallet and handing it to the bouncer. "You'll have to excuse my friend here. He gets testy that he still gets carded because he's so tiny, like a chihuahua."

Eddie caught a glimpse of the name on the ID as the bouncer handed it back to Richie. _Barry Berkman._

The bouncer stamped their left hands and waved them through, apparently not realizing that Eddie had never actually given him his ID.

They headed towards a table secluded enough to where they wouldn't be overheard but public enough to keep an eye on things. Once they were settled, Eddie said, "So, _Barry_ , it's been a while."

Richie chuckled. "I forgot to tell you-- Bev was also the master of creating fake IDs when we were teenagers. Nice distraction though."

Eddie just shook his head. "Alright. We can't just sit here and I owe you a drink, so what'll it be?"

"Just gimme a beer," Richie replied. 

Eddie nodded and walked up to the bar, quickly ordering two beers. He slid the cash payment over to the bartender and took his and Richie's drinks back over to their table. "Anything yet?"

Richie shook his head. "Nah, nothing yet. I see a couple of repeat offenders and one low-level dealer, but nothing worth calling in the cavalry for. I haven't even seen Bowers yet." He perked up. "Oh wait, speak of the Devil himself."

Eddie glanced over to where Richie was looking and saw a beefy blonde-haired man, roughly their age, who was wearing a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off and tattered blue jeans. He snorted. "Someone should tell him that mullet makes him look dumb."

"I know, right?" Richie took a sip of his beer. "I did tell him that a few times when we were kids, but that just got me beat up worse."

Eddie's eyebrows raised. "Beat up worse-- you mean to tell me THAT'S your childhood bully?"

"In the flesh."

Eddie watched as Bowers walked over to two men standing in the corner near the bar.

"The one on the right is Patrick Hockstetter, Bowers's second-in-command," Richie explained."On the left is Belch Huggins, Bowers's muscle." 

Bowers said something to them and they both nodded and followed Bowers through a door to the back of the club. 

As they waited for Bowers and his goons to come back, Richie bought them a second round of beers. He sat back at the table and passed Eddie's to him, "So," he asked, "how'd you wind up working for the DEA?"

Eddie opened his mouth, ready to give Richie his usual, watered-down version he usually reserved as the answer to that question, but something made him pause. 

He took a sip of his drink. "Uh, actually, my mom had Munchausen's-by-proxy," he began. "When I was a kid she convinced me that I was sick all the time and allergic to fucking, like, everything. She had me on all these fake medications and even an inhaler for 'asthma' that actually wound up being anxiety."

Richie's eyes were wide. "Shit, she would poison you?"

Eddie shook his head. "No, no, it wasn't like that. Mom wasn't _making_ me sick, she just liked for me to _believe_ that I was. She would give me sugar pills, and the inhaler I think was actually just camphor water. It was mostly a control thing, I think. She wanted me to have to depend on her. I didn't even really have friends until I went to college because she kept me isolated most of the time." _Don't touch the other boys, Eddie_ . _They'll make you sick._

Richie looked at him sympathetically. "Shit, man. That's super fucked up."

Eddie let out a humorless laugh. "Yeah, it is. My mother wanted me to pursue a safe, practical business degree but I convinced her to let me study pre-med instead, but as a 'compromise' I had to go to college in-state so I could at least go home on the weekends so she could 'take care of me'. 

He snorted at Richie's expression. "Yeah, exactly. I eventually figured out that pre-med really wasn't for me, but I had a friend who was a criminal justice major so I looked into it and decided to study that instead, but since I had already taken so many pharmacology classes for the pre-med degree I decided to still go with it as a minor. After I graduated, becoming an analyst for the DEA seemed like a perfect fit, but not long after I joined my mom died, and I just felt… lost, so I eventually switched to field work in order to try to get my mind off of things. I had actually just gotten back from my first field assignment when I met my ex-wife, Myra."

He winced. "Even though I had figured out by then that I wasn't really sick, it felt nice to have someone want to take care of me again, so I fell back into the same type of toxic relationship that I had had with my mom."

He took another sip of his beer. "Anyway, I eventually figured out through long talks with my best friend and DEA-mandated therapy sessions that my life was actually pretty fucking miserable and that my marriage was a sham, so I wound up asking Myra for a divorce."

"How'd she take it?" Richie asked.

Eddie snorted. "About as well as expected -- she tried to make my life a living hell, but I requested to be placed back on desk duty during the divorce proceedings so I could make all the meetings." He looked down at the table. "The divorce was finalized six months ago. This, uh, this is actually my first field assignment back."

"Wow."

"Yeah, wow _._ " Eddie shook his head. "I bet you didn't expect such a fucked-up answer as my reason for joining the DEA, huh?"

Richie hesitated before answering. "Hey man, we all got reasons why we do what we do, be they fucked-up ones or not."

Eddie looked back up at Richie. "Well what about you then? How'd you go from wanting to be a comedian to becoming a cop? That seems like quite the leap." 

Richie fiddled with the label on his beer. "Oh, uh, well, as you can imagine, my 'trash mouth' got me in trouble a lot as a kid, especially with Bowers and his gang. I guess I just want to protect the kids like me."

"The kids like you? You mean the Losers?" 

Richie shrugged. "Well yeah, but the ones like _me_ specifically. You know, loud, awkward…" He swallowed and glanced over at Eddie. "Gay."

 _Oh._ Eddie's heart fluttered. He had secretly hoped that he hadn't been reading Richie's previous attempts to flirt wrong, and it seemed that he hadn't. He took another sip of his drink. "Oh, um, yeah… me too."

Richie blinked. "You too...?"

"The uh, the gay thing." Eddie huffed out a breath. "I'm gay too."

Richie looked confused. "But what about your girlfriend?"

Eddie's brow furrowed. _What the fuck?_ "What girlfriend?"

"Your girlfriend, dude. You know, the one you said 'I love you' to on the phone last night."

"I don't _have_ a--" Suddenly it dawned on Eddie who Richie had been talking about. “Wait a minute. You mean _Nikki?”_

Richie waved a hand. "Yeah, that one. I was trying not to listen in but it was hard not to overhear since I was like two feet away from you."

Eddie laughed. "Oh my God, dude, Nikki is most definitely _not_ my girlfriend. She's my boss."

Richie's eyebrows raised. "So you tell your boss that you love her when you call in with an update? Man, I've heard of interesting ways of trying to get in good with the boss, but--"

"Oh fuck off," Eddie said good-naturedly. "It's not like that. Nikki's been my best friend since college. She's actually the friend who suggested that I look into criminal justice. She's practically my sister, not to mention _very_ happily married. In fact, I introduced her to her husband -- Aaron was a friend of mine from the pre-med program." He tilted his head. "You know, now that I think about it, he looks a lot like you."

Richie shook his head in disbelief. "So wait a minute, let me get this straight… or rather _not_ straight. You're into dudes?"

"100%." Eddie grinned. "Therapy helped me accept a lot of things about myself, including my sexuality."

"And Nikki is Director Eastwood?"

"Yes."

"Who is not your girlfriend."

"Oh dear God, no. Even if I _was_ actually into women that would never happen. We'd kill each other."

"Ugh, I am the worst gay _ever_ ," Richie moaned, briefly covering his face with his hands. "I can't even recognize my own kind."

Eddie chuckled. "Pretty sure that title actually goes to me, dude. It took me forever to even recognize it in _myself_." He sighed. "Maybe I'm just a coward."

Richie shook his head emphatically. "Hey, man, no. I know we haven't known each other long, but I can tell you're not a coward. You said 'fuck you' to your mom's life plans for you, you got out of a shitty, loveless marriage all on your own, and you chase down high-profile drug dealers for a living. That's pretty badass. You're braver than you think."

"Thanks, man." Eddie drained the last of his beer.

"How about a round of shots in celebration?" Richie said. "On me."

Eddie checked the time. "Yeah, okay." 

"Be right back then."

A few minutes later, Richie came back and handed Eddie his shot glass and another beer before setting his own shot and beer down and taking a seat next to Eddie, rather than across from him as he had previously. "Here you go, man."

"Thanks," Eddie replied. He picked up his shot glass. "To, uh… gay solidarity, I guess?"

Richie snorted out a laugh. "To _yes, homo_."

Eddie knocked back his shot and watched as Richie leaned down and picked his shot glass up using only his mouth, swallowing the tequila easily and dropping the glass back onto the table before licking his lips, eyeing Eddie the entire time.

Seeing Richie's lips wrap around the shot glass like that was quite honestly the most erotic thing Eddie had ever seen and he couldn't help but imagine how it would feel to have Richie's lips wrapped around his cock instead. He cleared his throat and took a sip of his beer. "You know, uh… you're only like the fourth person I've come out to. My ex-wife doesn't even know-- I didn't cite my sexuality as a reason for wanting a divorce."

"I appreciate you telling me," Richie replied. "I totally get it though. For me personally, coming out was fucking scary as shit, man. Luckily the only people whose opinions actually matter on the subject love and support me for who I am." He took another sip of his beer. "What about you?"

Eddie shrugged. "Well I told my therapist, obviously, so technically she was the first person I came out to, but I was so scared to tell Nikki that I was gay that when I did, I cried."

"Why were you scared? Were you afraid that she was going to react badly?" Richie asked softly.

Eddie shook his head. "Deep down I knew that it wouldn't change anything about our relationship, but we're so close that admitting it to her felt like finally admitting it out loud to myself, even though I had already mostly worked it out through therapy."

"So what happened?"

"She just pulled me into a hug and told me that she appreciated me trusting her enough to tell her and that there was absolutely nothing wrong with me, then she told me she loved me and we had a good cry together. Aaron walked into their living room a few minutes later to find us hugging and crying on the couch and asked us who died. I told him my heterosexuality." He grinned at the memory. "He just saluted me with his beer, said 'congratulations, man' and continued on through."

Richie laughed. "Sounds like you've got a great support system too." He paused and took Eddie's hand in his. "I promise you, it does get easier."

Eddie looked down at their entwined hands then back up to Richie. He cleared his throat. "You ready to get out of here? It's been three hours and Bowers and his minions haven't come back, and there hasn't been any sign of Pennywise either. If anything _is_ happening here, it's not going down tonight."

Richie nodded. "Yeah, if I'm gonna drink cheap, shitty beer it's going to be in the comfort of my own home. Let's go."

They left The Barrens, Richie summoning another Uber as they walked towards the doors.

Eddie pulled out his phone in order to update Nikki. _Club was a bust, but I still feel like it's connected somehow, like there's some important detail that we're missing. Also, I have something unrelated to the case to tell you later._

Their ride arrived shortly after and they climbed into the car.

On the ride back Eddie kept sneaking glances over at Richie, every once in a while catching Richie's eye and giving him a small smile while receiving a small smile in return.

When they arrived back at Richie's they thanked their driver and began the walk back up to Richie's front door.

"I feel like you're walking me to my door after a first date," Richie joked.

Eddie laughed. "Well, if this had been a date this would be the part where I told you that I had a nice time."

"Me too." Richie pulled his keys out of his pocket as they reached the front door and unlocked it. Instead of opening it, he just stood on the porch, looking down. "Really. This turned out to be fun." He glanced back up at Eddie and grinned. "Here's where you'd kiss me goodnight and I'd go in and analyze the entire date while on the phone with my best friend." 

There was a certain look in Richie's eyes that Eddie could have sworn was something akin to desire. He licked his lips as Richie opened the door and led Eddie inside. _You're braver than you think. You're braver than you think. YOU ARE BRAVER THAN YOU THINK._

 _Fuck it,_ he thought as Richie closed and locked the door behind them. He mustered up all the bravery he could, and when Richie turned back around, he leaned up and captured Richie's lips with his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Nikki is married to Dr. Aaron Connors from Trainwreck. XD


	12. Chapter Twelve - Richie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here be porn.
> 
> If that's not your thing, skip to chapter 13 and just know that they do the do.

Eddie was kissing him. Eddie was  _ kissing _ him. _ Holy fuck, Eddie was kissing him _ .

Richie must've been taking too long to process because before he knew it, Eddie was recoiling back in horror. "Oh shit, Jesus, I'm sorry, I--"

Richie quickly reached out and slid a hand around the back of Eddie's neck, pulling him back towards Richie as he slotted their lips together once again.

Eddie crowded Richie back against the front door as the kiss quickly grew heated. Eddie reached up and slid his hands over Richie's shoulders. "Too many clothes," he muttered against Richie's lips as he shoved at Richie's button-down. "Been wanting to get you out of these since I saw you in them earlier."

Richie's already-hardening cock twitched. _"Fuck_ _yes_ ," he breathed, pulling his arms out of the sleeves and randomly tossing the shirt away. "Upstairs."

They continued kissing their way up the stairs to Richie's bedroom, where Eddie gently shoved Richie onto the bed and climbed on top of him. He slid his hands under Richie's henley in order to remove it.

Richie gently grabbed his wrists to stop him. "Uh, hey, before we do anything I do have to ask… have you ever actually been with a guy before?"

Eddie froze. "Uh, no," he admitted, eyes downcast.

"Hey, hey, it's fine, dude," Richie reassured him. "I'm just checking to see what you're comfortable with. I promise, there's no pressure at all to do anything you don't want to do. We don't have to do  _ anything _ if you don't want to -- seriously just say the word and we'll stop."

Eddie quickly shook his head. "No, I do, I  _ definitely _ do."

Richie nodded. "Okay then. And just for the record, we have to have yearly checkups for the force and I haven't been with anyone since before my last one, so… just so you know." Richie felt that it was important to add that statement in the interest of full disclosure since he wasn't exactly sure what Eddie was interested in doing sexually.

Eddie blinked at him. "Oh, uh, yeah, same. We have yearly physicals at the agency, and I mean I haven't slept with anyone at all since my ex-wife, and even in that case it'd been years since the last time... but yeah." 

"Well, alrighty then, now that our sexual histories are out of the way…" Richie leaned up and pulled Eddie down for a kiss. 

He bit back a moan as Eddie gently trailed his hands across Richie's shoulders and down his chest, lightly grazing a nipple through Richie's shirt with his thumbnail. 

"Your fucking  _ shoulders _ , man," Eddie muttered. He ground his hips down as he pulled Richie's henley off. "You're so hot, what the _ fuck. _ "

Richie huffed out a breath at the friction, then slid his hands around Eddie's waist and pulled his t-shirt over his head.  _ "Christ,  _ you're gorgeous," he said, admiring Eddie's tattoos. 

He flipped them over in a show of strength that surprised even himself, then spread his hands across Eddie's torso. "I had no idea this is what you've been hiding underneath those polos. It's like unwrapping a gift."

"Then get on with it," Eddie panted, pupils blown wide with lust. "Less talk, more naked."

"Oh, no," Richie murmured with a smirk. "I like to take my time opening my presents." He leaned in to kiss Eddie again.

Richie had always prided himself on being a considerate lover, wanting to make his partner feel good before taking his own pleasure, but for some reason he felt it was doubly important to be so with Eddie.  _ Probably because this is his first time with a man, _ he thought to himself as he kissed his way down to Eddie's neck and gently bit down on his pulse point, drawing a loud moan out of the man beneath him.

Eddie clapped a hand over his mouth. "Shit, sorry."

Richie looked down at Eddie. "What? What for?"

Eddie looked embarrassed. "I, uh, the first couple of times Myra and I had sex she complained that I was too loud."

_What the actual fuck._ Eddie's ex-wife sounded like a real piece of work, and even if Eddie _had_ been straight it definitely sounded like his relationship had been toxic anyway. Richie shook his head. "Well you don't have to hold back with me -- be as loud as you want. I want you to let me know what makes you feel good."

He leaned down and traced his tongue over one of the stars tattooed on Eddie's chest, then the other. "I fucking love your tattoos," he whispered against Eddie's skin. "So fucking sexy."

Eddie let out a huff as he arched his back. "Fuck,  _ Richie _ ."

"Mmm,  _ yes _ , let me hear you." Richie kissed his way down Eddie's body, murmuring praises as he went and relishing in the little moans and whimpers Eddie made.

He trailed his tongue along the strip of skin right above the waistband of Eddie's boxers before slowly sliding them off. He licked his lips at the sight of Eddie's long, beautifully flushed cock and immediately wanted to feel the weight of it on his tongue. "Can I suck your dick?" he asked.

Eddie let out a moan so hot that Richie immediately filed the sound away for future spank bank material. "Jesus Christ, yes,  _ please _ ."

Richie ran his hands soothingly across Eddie's thighs. "You've at least done this, right?"

"Uh, a few times. Myra didn't really like the taste so we never really did much oral stuff."

_ Why am I not surprised? _ Richie both lamented the fact that Eddie's (quite frankly gorgeous) cock apparently had been neglected for years and felt privileged that he currently got to be the one to worship it. He nosed at Eddie's groin before licking his way up from root to tip, swirling his tongue around the head and licking up the pre-come that had collected there. "Fuck, you taste amazing."

He swallowed his way down, moaning around Eddie's cock as it hit the back of his throat.

Eddie bucked his hips up. "Holy  _ shit _ ."

Richie shot a hand out to keep Eddie's hips down on the bed.

"Shit, fuck, sorry--" Eddie apologized.

Richie hummed in acknowledgement as he continued to work Eddie's cock with his mouth, occasionally pulling off to suck at the head before swallowing back down.

Eddie's hands snaked into Richie's hair. "Is this okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, just don't pull too hard." Richie swirled his tongue around Eddie's tip. 

Eddie's breath hitched and he lightly tugged at Richie's hair. "Ok wait, wait, Richie, stop."

Richie immediately pulled off. "You ok?"

Eddie nodded. "Yeah, yeah it's just…" He bit his lip. "I want to fuck you. Can I fuck you?"

Richie's dick throbbed at the thought of having Eddie inside him. "Yep, yep, absolutely down for that, whatever you want."

He reached over and opened his nightstand drawer, pulling out a half-empty bottle of lube and a condom. "How do you want me?"

"I'd like to be able to see you, if that's okay," Eddie replied shyly.

"Okay, then here, we need to switch places." He grabbed an extra pillow and shoved it under his hips for leverage. "Here, this should make things a bit easier."

Richie heard the click of the cap on the lube bottle and watched as Eddie slicked up three fingers. 

Eddie reached down and circled Richie's rim. He licked his lips as he slowly pressed a finger in. "Is this okay?" he asked.

"Jesus,  _ fuck _ , yes," Richie panted as Eddie withdrew his finger and slid it back in. "Are you sure you've never done this before?"

"Well, I've done it to myself," Eddie replied.

Richie could picture Eddie on his hands and knees, cock flushed and dripping as he pressed his fingers inside himself. 

He moaned as Eddie added a second finger, stretching him open. After working him for a bit, Eddie bit his lip and crooked his fingers as if searching for something--

Richie bucked his hips as Eddie brushed his prostate.  _ " _ Hooooly _ fuck _ . You found that quick."

Eddie grinned. "I was originally pre-med, remember? I took anatomy."

"Damn, was it a practical course?" Richie huffed as Eddie added a third finger and hit his prostate again. "Fuck, fuck, I'm ready."

He winced against the emptiness as Eddie withdrew his fingers and ripped the condom wrapper open, rolled the condom on, and slicked himself up.

Richie felt Eddie line himself up and slowly push in past the first ring of muscle. "Is this okay?" Eddie asked.

Richie let out an involuntary moan. "Yeah, shit, yeah, just… go slow."

Eddie slowly inched his way in until his hips were flush with Richie's ass.  _ "Shit _ ," he hissed, squeezing his eyes shut.

"You ok?" Richie asked.

"Yeah, just… give me a minute," Eddie replied. "I don't want to embarrass myself by only lasting two seconds." He took a few deep breaths, then slowly pulled most of the way out before sliding back in. "Okay. I'm good."

"Fuck  _ yeah _ , you are," Richie replied mindlessly.

Eddie easily set a rhythm, eventually changing the angle so he was hitting Richie's prostate on almost every thrust. "Jesus, Richie, I'm close," he panted. "I want to make you come too, please tell me you're close."

Richie, who had been neglecting his now painfully flushed, leaking cock in favor of touching Eddie everywhere he possibly could reach, moaned. " _ Fuck, Eddie _ , yes, touch me, please just fucking touch me."

Eddie reached out and wrapped a hand around Richie's cock, fucking into him on the downstroke as he jerked him off.

"Fuck,  _ fuck _ , yes,  _ Eddie-- _ " was all Richie could get out before his orgasm shot through him, painting his stomach and chest with his release.

Eddie thrust into him twice more before letting out Richie's name on a moan, pulsing inside Richie as he emptied himself into the condom.

He winced as he eased himself out of Richie, disposing of the condom in the trash can next to Richie's bed and cleaning them both off with the wipes Richie had placed on top of the nightstand. He flopped down next to Richie. "Jesus, I didn't know sex could be like that," he said with a breathy laugh.

Richie turned onto his side so he was looking at Eddie. "Like what?"

Eddie scrubbed a hand over his face. "Like my soul has exited my body through my dick."

Richie couldn't help but join in Eddie's laughter. He shook his head. "Not gonna lie, that was a fucking religious experience."

"Oh." The blush on Eddie's face was honestly one of the cutest things Richie had ever seen. "So yeah, I'm gonna, uh…"

Eddie moved like he was going to get up, so Richie quickly grabbed his hand. "Hey, uh, you can stay in here tonight if you want to."

For a moment he thought Eddie was going to decline, but instead Eddie pursed his lips and nodded. "Okay," he said before settling back down.

Richie reached over Eddie to turn the lamp off and pulled the covers over them both, quickly falling into a peaceful sleep.


	13. Chapter Thirteen - Eddie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for this chapter: Panic attack.

Eddie woke up early the next morning and stretched, blinking against the sunlight streaming in through the window.  _ Wasn't the sun on the other side of the room yesterday? _

Suddenly the events of the previous night came back to him and he snapped his eyes open.

_ Richie's room. Richie's bed. _

_ I had sex with Richie. _

He looked over at the peacefully slumbering man, taking the opportunity to openly admire Richie's physique. His gaze trailed from Richie's broad shoulders down his bare back, where the sheet lay low on his hips. _ He's even more beautiful in sleep _ . It was so tempting to reach out and trace the width of Richie's shoulders, trail his hands down the planes of Richie's back, place kisses down Richie's spine all the way down to the swell of his ass...

He sighed and silently slid out of bed so as to not wake Richie. He gathered his clothes and tiptoed down the hall to the guest bedroom, where he grabbed a pair of sweatpants and a tank top and plugged his phone in to charge before heading into the guest bathroom.

He showered and washed his hair, then returned to his room. He picked up his phone, where he saw he had a text from Nikki.  _ Hey, sorry I missed your text last night -- Aaron surprised me with tickets to the theatre and we got back late. Give me a call when you can! _

He decided to wait until later to call Nikki back, knowing that she and Aaron were probably still basking in their post- date night afterglow. 

He slipped on his jogging shoes and headed out the door.

Eddie had taken up running in high school after he had discovered that his asthma was fake, finding that the rhythmic slapping of his shoes against the pavement helped get him out of his head. 

Today, however, there was only one thing on his mind as he jogged at a steady pace.  _ Ri-chie. Ri-chie. Ri-chie. Ri-chie. _

He sped up, determined to get his mind back on the case.  _ What am I missing? _ There was some sort of connection, some minute detail that he wasn't seeing.

_ The feel of Richie's lips on his own, Richie's big, broad hands on Eddie's thighs as he swallowed Eddie's cock down, the beautiful sounds Richie made when Eddie breached his entrance, the expression on Richie's face as he came with Eddie buried deep inside him… _

"Fuck!" he yelled. He couldn't focus, couldn't piece together what he needed to in order to figure out where Pennywise was hiding.  _ See what happens when you touch the other boys, Eddie? _ a voice that sounded suspiciously like his mother whispered in his mind.  _ More people will die because of you, all because you've allowed yourself to get distracted. You're poisoned now, Eddie, you're sick, you're dirty, you're infected-- _

He broke stride to lean against a tree, gasping and clawing at his throat in order to try to catch his breath.  _ Can't breathe, help, need air--  _

On instinct, he reached in his pocket for his inhaler, remembering hazily that he no longer carried one.  _ Panic attack. I'm having a panic attack. _

As he tried desperately to recall the breathing exercise his therapist, Jessica, had taught him, Nikki's voice pierced through the fog in his head:  _ In for 4, hold for 7, out for 8.  _ He struggled in a breath, held it, then let it out shakily.  _ In for 4, hold for 7, out for 8. You're doing great, sweetie. Just keep breathing for me. In for 4, hold for 7, out for 8... _

He kept up the exercise for a few minutes until he finally felt like he could breathe without passing out, then slowly headed back towards Richie's house. 

He let himself in through the unlocked kitchen door and headed back upstairs to take another shower and change out of his running clothes.

Once he was dressed again, this time in blue jeans and a dark gray t-shirt, he headed back downstairs to the kitchen, where Richie was making breakfast.

"Morning, Eds," Richie said cheerfully, sliding some eggs out of a pan and into a bowl. He turned the stove off and grabbed the toast out of the toaster before moving towards the refrigerator. "Juice?"

Eddie shook his head and took at seat at the table. "Um, no thanks. Richie, we need to talk."

Richie paused briefly before straightening and turning towards Eddie with a grin. "What's up?"

Eddie took a deep breath. "There's no easy way to say this, but... I think last night was…"  _ The best night of my life.  _ "A mistake."

A flicker of hurt crossed Richie's face. "A mistake?" he repeated.

Eddie sighed. "Look, I'm here to do my job, and right now my job is to capture Pennywise. Putting him behind bars is my number-one priority and I can't let myself be distracted from that by anything or anyone, especially by sleeping with someone with whom I'm working on the case." 

Richie shrugged, the nonchalant grin returning. "Hey, man, I totally get it. You're newly out and wanted to pop your gay cherry, and a 1-night stand was the best way to do that. In hindsight it probably shouldn't have been with me, because like you said, we're working together, but come on, it's not like either one of us actually have feelings for the other, right? It was just sex. No big deal."

A sour feeling grew in the pit of Eddie's stomach. "Right. Just sex."

"Besides, you'll be leaving as soon as the case is over and going back to your life in D.C. We'll never have to see each other again." Richie moved to the key rack by the door and grabbed his keys. "I, uh, I have to go meet with an informant, so… I'm gonna go do that."

Eddie stood. "Oh, ok, let me grab my stuff."

Richie quickly shook his head. "Oh, uh, no, that's ok. This guy gets squirrely if anyone else but me shows up, so I'm gonna go alone. You just… hang here or go out and explore Derry or whatever. I'll see you later, Agent Kaspbrak."

He was out the door before Eddie could say another word.


	14. Chapter Fourteen - Richie

Richie drew a shaky breath as he got into his car, Eddie's voice playing on a loop in his head. _Last night was a mistake. I can't let myself be distracted. Last night was a mistake. I can't let myself be distracted. Last night was a mistake. Mistake. MISTAKE--_

He wasn't quite sure what he had been expecting when Eddie came downstairs for breakfast, but it definitely hadn't been rejection.

 _It was just sex,_ he reminded himself. _Too bad you didn't realize that he could channel all the energy in his ripped, compact little body into giving you the absolute best sex that you'd ever had, sex so damn good that any possible future sex with anyone else will probably never compare_.

He ran his hands through his hair, now shorter but still wild and messy after his morning shower, and started his car.

Richie drove through town, passing by the Townhouse where Eddie had originally stayed, past the diner where he and Eddie had shared breakfast, past the police department where they'd spent so many hours together trying to solve the case…

 _Who am I kidding,_ he thought. Eddie was already ingrained in Richie's life -- in his work, in his home, in his head, in his --

_No. Solve the case and move on, Tozier._

If Richie was good at anything, it was burying his feelings. He had, after all, had years of practice hiding both his sexuality and anxiety behind casual jokes and a nonchalant demeanor. He could do this. He could ignore his feelings for Eddie and finish the case, then move on with his life and forget all about the short-tempered DEA agent who had angrily stomped into his life and turned it upside-down in just a few short days.

On a whim, he pulled into the parking lot for the high school and got out, heading east on foot toward Bassey Park.

He walked through the park until he came upon a bridge that crossed a little creek, a bridge that had for years been locally known as the "Kissing Bridge". 

Many a lover in Derry had carved names and initials into the soft wood of the Kissing Bridge, declaring their feelings either publicly, with the object of their affection by their side, or alone in secret. Richie had never carved any declarations himself, but he recalled seeing both "Bill + Audra" and "S+P" permanently etched into the bridge. He briefly wondered if Ben and Bev's names were also carved somewhere, or if Mike had ever secretly carved any initials.

He crossed the bridge to the other side of the park before turning and making his way back around, taking the long U-shape trail around the park back towards the Kissing Bridge.

He had made it just past the bridge when he felt a presence behind him, but when he turned to look there was no one there.

Feeling uneasy, he continued to head back towards his car, where he had a concealed weapon in his glove compartment.

He breathed a sigh of relief when his car came into view. He clicked the remote to unlock the door and was reaching for the handle when he glimpsed a reflection in the window.

Before he could even react he felt a hypodermic needle enter his neck, then the world went dark.


	15. Chapter Fifteen - Eddie

Eddie sat at Richie's kitchen table long after Richie had left.

He sighed and covered his face with his hands. He needed to talk to Nikki.

He pulled out his phone.  _ Hey Nik, you busy? I need to talk to you ASAP. _

A few seconds later, his phone rang, Nikki's name popping up on the caller ID. "Nikki?"

"Eddie?" Nikki's tone was concerned. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah -- well, no. I fucked up, Nik. I really,  _ really _ fucked up."

"What do you mean? What's happened?"

"I… I slept with him."

"Wait, what?" There was a muffled sound as Nikki said something to someone -- presumably Aaron -- then the sound of walking. "What are you talking about?" she whispered. "Slept with who?"

"Richie-- I mean Detective Tozier."

Nikki was silent, then there was the beep of an incoming call.

Eddie looked at his screen.  _ Nikki/Director Eastwood would like to Facetime… _

_ Oh shit, _ he thought, swiping to accept the request.

Nikki's face appeared on the screen. Instead of the harsh, pinched expression Eddie had expected, her face was filled with concern. "Ok, so start from the beginning," she said.

Eddie bit his lip. "Well, we went out to that club last night for a recon mission, right? And we started talking -- which,  _ surprise _ , turns out Richie's gay too -- while we were waiting for something to happen with the case and then when nothing did we left, and then we got back to Richie-- Detective Tozier-- 's house and he was being really flirty and I was being flirty back and then we got inside and I-- I kissed him, and one thing led to another and, well…" He trailed off. "So anyway, this morning I went for a run because I know there's some important detail about the case that we're missing and that the club is connected to Pennywise  _ somehow _ but all I could think about was Richie and just how great last night was, and all of a sudden I was hearing my mother's voice in my head saying stuff about how I 'touched the other boys' and that more people were going to die because I let myself be distracted, and how I'm  _ poisoned _ now, and…" His voice broke. "And I wound up having a panic attack." 

Nikki shook her head. "You listen to me, Edward Francis Kaspbrak," she said firmly. "I know your mother has been dead for over fifteen years, but still,  _ fuck _ that bitch for ever making you think that there was something wrong with you for liking guys.  _ There is absolutely nothing wrong with you _ , okay? Nothing. I have faith in your skills as a federal agent and know that you can and  _ will  _ solve this case, but you can't let it consume your every waking moment. You deserved to have some fun and blow off some steam, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with having mind-blowing sex with a hot police detective in order to do it."

Eddie let out a watery laugh. "Yeah not gonna lie, Nik, it really was the absolute best night of my life."

"So then what happened after you got back?"

"I told Richie that last night had been a mistake and that I couldn't afford any distractions."

"And then what did he say?"

"That it was fine, that last night was 'just sex' anyway. Then he said he had to go meet an informant and he left."

Nikki winced. "I'm so sorry, honey."

"It's okay. I'm just going to finish the case and come home."

"Well, sweetie, you know I'm here for you if you need to talk again. In the meantime, I'm going to get Franklin to see if he can dig up any other info on that club or the owner."

"Okay, thanks Nik." Eddie sniffled. "Oh I forgot to ask you, how was your date night with Aaron last night?"

Nikki smiled wickedly. "Well, let's just say you're not the only one who had mind-blowing sex last night."

Eddie laughed. "Get it, girl."

Another call beeped in and Eddie frowned. "Hey, I have to run. Captain Denbrough is calling me."

"Okay, hon, keep me informed. Talk to you later!"

"Bye, Nik." Eddie switched over to the other call. "Hello?"

"Eddie, it's Bill. Is Richie with you? I've been trying to call his phone and he's not picking up."

_ Ok, so obviously Richie hadn't told Bill about last night or this morning, _ Eddie thought. "Uh, no, actually. He said something about meeting with an informant, but that was…" He checked the time. "Shit, like 2 hours ago."

"Huh, ok. I'll see if I can track him down. Thanks, man."

"No problem."

"Bye, Eddie."

"Bye."

Eddie sighed as he hung up.  _ Might as well take advantage of the alone time to work on the case. _

He scribbled a note to Richie in case he came back while Eddie was gone.  _ At the station. Back later. _

He grabbed his keys and wallet and headed out the door, driving to the station on autopilot. Once he had arrived and parked he belatedly realized that the business office was closed since it was Saturday and that he didn't have Richie with him to let him in the employees-only entrance.

He sighed and turned around to head back to his car when his phone rang.

His brow furrowed. "Hey, Bill, did you find him?"

"Eddie, did Richie say which informant he was meeting with?" Bill sounded breathless.

"No, why?"

"Because his car was just found at the high school with his keys and phone on the ground next to it. We think something may have happened to him."

Eddie's blood ran cold. "Where are you?" he asked.

"I'm on my way to the station. Stan's with me -- we were on our way to meet up with Mike and Ben but now we're all headed there."

"Okay, good. I'm at the station now -- I was gonna come in to work on the case while Richie was gone but I didn't realize that I couldn't get in, so I was just about to leave."

"Okay, sit tight, we'll be right there."

Eddie hung up and began pacing. He couldn't help but feel responsible if something happened to Richie and became even more determined than ever to solve the case.  _ Please be okay, Richie _ , he thought desperately.  _ I'll find you. I swear I'll find you. _


	16. Chapter Sixteen - Richie

_ Ugh, what the FUCK _ , was Richie's first thought as he came to. The second was,  _ where the hell am I? _

He blearily opened his eyes and took in his surroundings, realizing with a groan that he was tied to a chair in a cavern of some sort. The smell of dank, mildewy earth and chemicals filled his nostrils.  _ How long was I out? _

Finally his eyes managed to focus on a small, square metal table in the center of the room. Several hypodermic needles, each filled with some sort of cloudy liquid, sat on top. 

Richie suddenly remembered heading back to his car at Bassey Park. _Drugged,_ he thought. _I was drugged and brought here,_ _wherever exactly_ here _is_.

He experimentally wriggled his wrists and ankles, testing out his bonds to see if he could possibly escape.  _ Nope, pretty secure. _

Suddenly he heard an unfamiliar, high-pitched voice echo throughout the cavern. "Hello, Detective." 

Richie whipped his head around, trying to locate the source of the voice. He struggled to speak, but his head was still swimming and his tongue felt like sandpaper. He swallowed dryly and shook his head, trying to clear it.

A giggle rang out, sounding closer and more pronounced.

Richie turned towards the sound, peering down one of the tunnels that extended off of the main part of the cavern. His eyes widened.

The photo of Pennywise he had been given still hadn't prepared Richie for the sight of the man himself. His hair was a shockingly bright orange and sat in a triangular shape on top of his head, while white makeup covered his long, narrow face. Two blood-red lines curved down either side of his face to his mouth, which was painted the same bright color. He grinned, showing off abnormally large front teeth. "So glad you could join us."

"Oh, me too," Richie replied sarcastically. "Wouldn't want to miss any of the fun."

Pennywise giggled maniacally. "Oh, don't you worry, Detective. The fun's just beginning."

He walked over to the table. "You see, I've been tweaking my formula lately in order to extend the effects, and apparently one of the new ingredients has changed the chemical makeup and made it highly toxic." He shrugged. "Oops."

_ Stall, _ Richie thought.  _ Keep him talking.  _ "You know I'm working with the DEA, right? The agent they sent is going to figure out that I'm missing and come looking for me."

Pennywise grinned. "Oh, I'm  _ planning  _ on it. Too bad you'll be dead before Agent Kaspbrak can get here."

Richie froze. 

Pennywise giggled again. "I have eyes  _ everywhere _ , Detective. Even at the DEA."

He picked up one of the syringes, examining it fondly before setting it back down. "I just want to have a little fun with Agent Kaspbrak before I move on to my next location, so we're going to play a little game. Oh, it's such a fun game. I think you'll like it."

"I doubt it," Richie muttered.

Pennywise ignored him. "Here's how the game will work: each of these syringes contain a different version of my formula with one of the new ingredients removed, and just for fun there's a few syringes with some extra added surprises. You'll choose a syringe, and whichever one you pick you get to be injected with! Isn't that fun?"

"So what, you're just gonna inject me with drugs and wait to see if I convulse and die?"  _ Great. _ The last thing Richie needed was to die at the hand of some knockoff Batman villain. 

Pennywise grinned wickedly. "Oh, you're going to die either way, but this way you'll get to be my little test monkey before you do."

_Shit._ Richie wasn't sure how long he had been missing but he hoped like hell that someone had already figured out that something was wrong. "Fuck you," he spat.

Pennywise's eyes hardened. "You can either pick one, or else I'll inject you with them all, one at a time, until your heart explodes out of your chest." He gestured to the syringes. "Now, go ahead, Detective. Pick your poison."


	17. Chapter Seventeen - Eddie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait for an update -- my allergies have been in overdrive the past couple of weeks (I live in an area where Mother Nature is perpetually drunk so everything has bloomed early) and my meds make my brain super fuzzy.
> 
> TW for this chapter: descriptions of murder (RIP Georgie my bro), abduction/attack, non-descriptive mention of a past panic attack.

As soon as Bill and Stan arrived at the police station, Eddie grabbed on to Bill. "Bill, I need to talk to you. In private."

Bill nodded and swiped his ID on the electronic pad next to the employee entrance. "Okay. Give us a minute, Stan?"

Stan nodded. "I'll go make some coffee and get the conference room ready."

Bill led Eddie to his office and closed the door behind them. He leaned against his desk. "So what do you need to talk about?"

Eddie took a deep breath. "So here's the thing… I'm gay."

Bill looked nonplussed. "Okay."

"And I slept with Richie last night."

"...Okay."

"And I had a panic attack about it and freaked out at Richie this morning." He gave Bill an abridged version of the morning's events. "Then he said it was fine and had an informant to meet and then he left."

"Aha. Okay." Bill crossed his arms. "Look, I love Richie like a brother, but to be honest he's not the best at expressing his feelings. I can't really say anything specific, but I think he just said that so he could be alone."

Eddie deflated. "Well informant meeting or not, I'm here to track down Pennywise and I haven't done so and _because_ of that Richie has been abducted and possibly hurt." He shook his head in resolve. "I swear to you though, Bill, I'll do everything in my power to to find him and make sure that Pennywise pays for anything that might happen to him. I genuinely care about Richie. I can't really explain it, but it feels like I've known him my entire life rather than just a few days. I feel like that with all of you."

"I think he cares for you too, Eddie," Bill said. "We all do."

Eddie sighed. "I just wish the circumstances were different."

Bill looked at Eddie sadly, then nodded. "Come on, let's go brief the others."

They headed to the conference room, where Stan, Mike, Ben, and Bev were all waiting.

"Okay, so here's what we know," Bill said to the small group as he and Eddie entered the room. "Richie left his house around 8 am this morning and disappeared some time between then and 10:40 when we found his car at the high school. Mike, where are we on getting the security camera footage from the school parking lot?"

"I've spoken to Principal Evans and they should be getting us the footage within the hour," Mike replied. 

"Ok, good. Send a uniformed officer over there to retrieve it as soon as it's available. In the meantime, I've notified all officers currently on duty to be on the lookout for anything suspicious, especially around The Barrens. Eddie, didn't you and Richie go undercover there last night?"

"Oh, uh, yeah," Eddie replied. "However there was no suspicious activity while we were there…" He paused as a realization hit him. "Wait a minute. Does anyone have a map of Derry? Preferably one from the early 1920s."

Ben raised his hand. "I have a book in my truck on the history of Derry that I was about to go return to the library. It includes a map."

"Can you go get it?"  _ I hope I'm right. _

"What are you thinking?" Bill asked as Ben got up to go retrieve the book.

"Yesterday Richie gave me a history lesson on the building where the Barrens is," Eddie explained. "He said it started out as a speakeasy, right?"

Bill nodded.

"Well, what were speakeasies known for?  _ Hidden underground rooms _ ."

Ben came back with the book and Eddie began flipping through it, stopping when he came upon a map of Old Derry. 

He pointed to it. " _ Yes, _ here. It looks like there was a tunnel system of some sort that ran from the quarry, underneath the Barrens to..." He traced a finger along the route.

"Neibolt Street," Stan said softly.

He looked up as everyone sucked in a collective breath. "Yeah. How'd you know that?"

Bill quickly placed a call. "Judge, it's Captain Denbrough over at the PD. I need a search warrant for The Barrens as soon as possible. Yes sir, I'm absolutely certain. Ok, thank you, sir."

After he hung up, he immediately called in the other narcotics detectives to conduct the search on the Barrens. "Ok, everyone, let's get going. Stan, are you sticking around here or having Patty come pick you up?"

"Actually, I'm coming too," Stan replied shakily.

"Are you sure?" Beverly asked.

Stan nodded. "I-- I need to do this."

Bill looked at him with concern, but then nodded. "Ok, then, you're with Mike. Eddie, you're with me."

They all got their gear on and went to their respective vehicles, Eddie pausing briefly at his car to stop and get his badge and gun before climbing into Bill's car.

"So how did Stan know where the tunnel ended up?" he asked.

Instead of answering, Bill studied Eddie carefully. "Did Richie ever tell you why we all joined the PD?" he asked.

"He said something about wanting to protect the kids like him from bullies like Henry Bowers," Eddie replied.

Bill nodded. "Derry has never been kind to kids like Richie," he explained, "so it makes sense that he would want to protect others like him, but there's actually more to it than that." He sighed. "When we were thirteen, my younger brother was killed in a shooting."

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry." Eddie couldn't imagine losing a sibling in such a tragic manner, especially one at so young of an age.

"Georgie was out sailing a paper boat after a rainstorm and stumbled across a drug deal in progress. The deal went south and Georgie was caught in the crossfire. The shooter escaped."

Bill gripped the steering wheel harder, his knuckles turning white. "I spent the entire summer obsessed with finding Georgie's killer -- so much so that I convinced my friends to join me in searching for clues. Finally, we got a lead that the killer was hanging around an abandoned house in town, so we went to investigate." 

Eddie nodded in realization. "The abandoned house was on Neibolt Street."

Bill glanced over at Eddie with a wry smile. "Probably not the wisest idea for six teenagers to go poking around a former crack house, but…" He shook his head. "Stan got separated from the rest of us while we were wandering around in the tunnels below the house and wound up being attacked by the killer. Luckily we managed to find him before he was injured too badly, but the killer had escaped again, presumably through the tunnels."

Eddie sucked in a breath. He had noticed a long, thin white scar on Stan's neck that had looked like a knife wound but hadn't wanted to comment on it. "Is that why Stan's the only one of the Losers who's not a uniformed officer?"

Bill winced. "He technically  _ is _ a uniformed officer. He graduated from the academy and made it through his rookie training and everything, but one of the cases hit too close to home and he had a panic attack during a hostage situation. He was going to quit but we convinced him to stay on as the station's sketch artist, and he now also serves as our tech guru."

He slowed to a stop. "We're here."

Eddie looked out the window at the decrepit two-story house, taking in the unkempt lawn, the broken fence, and the hanging shutters. "It looks…  _ alive _ ," he said unthinkingly. "Like it's pissed off."

"Yeah, we've always thought so too," Bill agreed. He turned his car off and opened his door as Mike & Stan and Ben & Bev also pulled up. "Come on, let's go rescue Richie."

They gathered in front of the door. "Remember the plan, guys," Bill said. "Stick with your partner. If you find Richie and the situation is safe enough, radio the others."

He turned to Eddie. "Agent Kaspbrak, do you have anything to add?"

"Yeah, I do." Eddie pulled his gun out of its holster. "Let's get this fucking clown."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm now on Twitter! Come join me in screaming about all things IT-related at @Trash4Reddie.


	18. Chapter Eighteen - Richie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is so short - the main focus for the rescue is Eddie's PoV, but the last chapter was already long and I didn't want to throw the chapters off by adding two chapters in a row from Eddie's PoV so this is a (very) brief interlude from Richie.

Richie glanced over at the syringes again. "How about none of the above?"

"Oh, Detective, you're so  _ witty _ ," Pennywise said sarcastically. "No wonder Agent Kaspbrak has taken a shine to you. And so quickly, too. Shame I'll have to kill you both."

He walked back over to the table and picked up a syringe. "Now, time for round one."

The sound of a cell phone ringing suddenly pierced the silence.

Pennywise groaned. "Excuse me one moment, will you Detective?"

Richie breathed a sigh of relief as Pennywise set the syringe back down.

"Yes?" Pennywise said into the phone, then his face clouded over. "Start moving what you can. I'll be there as soon as I've taken care of things here."

He hung up the phone and turned back to Richie, his face a strange mix of angry and victorious. "Well, it looks like there may be a small hitch in my plans. Sit tight, Detective. Looks like Agent Kaspbrak will be joining us a bit sooner than I expected."


	19. Chapter Nineteen - Eddie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Non-consensual drug use.

The group entered the house in pairs, separating only to check each room.

"Clear!" Mike called from the kitchen.

"Clear," Ben & Bev's voices echoed from upstairs.

"Cl-clear," came Stan's shaky voice from the parlor.

"Clear," Eddie chimed in from a downstairs bedroom. "Where to, Bill?"

"Basement," Bill answered. "It leads down to the tunnels."

They headed downstairs to the basement, then past a large hole in the wall that led down into the tunnels.

They stuck together as a group until the tunnel split in 3 different directions.

"Ok, remember to _stick with your partner_ ," Bill reiterated again. "Stan, how you doing?"

Stan swallowed. "I'm okay," he replied, scooting closer to Mike.

"Everyone make sure your radio is on. Ben & Bev, you two take the left tunnel. Mike and Stan, you take the right. Eddie and I will go straight."

"Good luck, everyone," Eddie added. "Be safe."

He and Bill continued walking silently through the tunnel, pausing every so often to listen for sounds of movement or talking. 

After what felt like hours, although it probably was only about 10 minutes, Eddie paused and gestured ahead of them. "Wait a second," he whispered. "Do you hear something?"

Bill cocked his head as they crept closer. "Yeah, I hear voices." His face lit up as they grew louder. "One of them sounds like Richie."

"Oh thank God," Eddie sighed. "He's still alive."

He moved out ahead of Bill and crept closer to the end of the tunnel, sending a signal for Bill to hang back and radio the others.

It appeared that this particular tunnel opened into a large chamber. He could see that Richie was tied to a chair but otherwise appeared seemingly unharmed. Pennywise stood in front of him, back to Eddie.

"So you see, Detective," Pennywise was saying, "I _was_ going to draw this out, but now it looks like I'm just going to have to kill you faster."

Eddie stepped out from the tunnel. "Like fucking _hell_ you will," he said, raising his gun and pointing it at Pennywise.

Pennywise turned around. "Ah, Agent Kaspbrak, so glad you could join us."

"Sorry I'm late," Eddie replied dryly. "Had trouble finding the place."

Pennywise laughed, the high-pitched giggle echoing off the chamber walls. "Oh no, Agent, you're right on time." He backed up next to Richie. "We were just getting started, right Detective Tozier?" He traced a finger down Richie's face.

Eddie raised his gun higher. "Don't you fucking touch him. Now, get down on the ground."

Pennywise smirked. "Oh, Agent, I don't believe you're in the position to be making demands." 

Before Eddie could react, Pennywise had produced a hypodermic needle seemingly from nowhere and had it pointed at Richie's neck. "Now, drop the gun or Detective Tozier dies."

"Don't listen to him, Eddie," Richie said.

"Your choice, Agent." Pennywise pressed the needle against Richie's neck, causing Richie to flinch.

"Wait!" Eddie held his hands up. _Come on, Bill, get the others,_ he thought.

"Eddie, no." Richie looked pained. "Don't worry about me. I'm not what's important here."

Eddie looked straight at Richie as he lowered his gun to the ground and shoved it away. "You are to me."

He straightened. "Let Richie go."

Pennywise's eyes glittered. "Why don't you come get him yourself?"

He jabbed the needle into Richie's neck, then turned and fled just as Bill and the others arrived.

“We’ve got Richie,” Bill yelled at Eddie. “You go get Pennywise!”

Eddie grabbed his gun and headed down the tunnel, hot on the heels of Pennywise. “Give it up, Gray!” he yelled as he chased him towards the sewers.

He turned a sharp corner and came face-to-face with Pennywise, who had arrived at a sewer grate further ahead. 

Eddie trained his gun on Pennywise once again. “It’s over, Gray. You’re trapped.”

Pennywise gave Eddie a smirk. “Oh, I know you think you have me beaten, but that’s where you’re wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.”

He held up what looked like a switch. “Better luck next time, Agent,” he taunted, pressing the button.

An explosion rang out as the ceiling in-between Eddie and Pennywise collapsed, separating them.

Eddie swore as the entire tunnel began to shake. He backtracked towards the cavern, where only Bill and Stan remained. “Where’s Richie?” he asked.

“Ben and Mike helped him get out of here while Beverly called an ambulance,” Bill explained as the cavern began to shake. “What happened to Pennywise?”

Eddie shook his head “He blew up the tunnel and escaped. We’ve gotta get out of here before the whole place collapses.” 

The three quickly wound their way back up to the house, running out the front door and towards the others just as the house collapsed in on itself.

Eddie knelt next to Richie, whose head was cradled in Beverly’s lap. He could hear sirens sounding in the distance. “Richie? Richie, talk to me.”

Richie’s eyes fluttered open. “Eddie?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” Eddie said. “I’m here, buddy. I’m here.”

“Good,” Richie said, then promptly passed out.

“Richie? Richie!” Eddie cried as the ambulance arrived.

Ben and Bill gently pulled him away as the EMTs began to work on Richie, Beverly quickly explaining that Richie had been drugged with an unknown substance.

The EMTs loaded Richie onto a stretcher and quickly got him into the back of the ambulance.

Eddie watched numbly as the ambulance drove away, then blinked as Bill put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “I can’t let anything happen to him, Bill. I can’t --” He cut himself off.

“I know, man,” Bill replied. “I know. Come on, we’ll head to the hospital.”

Eddie quickly filled Bill in on the tunnel chase, after which Bill put out an APB. They arrived at the hospital in record time, bursting into the emergency room and immediately inquiring about Richie.

A nurse assured them that they would let them know as soon as they had news to share and directed them to the waiting area.

Eddie sat in a chair. _Please let him be okay,_ he thought. 

Beverly sat next to Eddie and handed him a cup of coffee. "Here, you look like you could use this," she said.

"Thanks," Eddie muttered, holding the cup but not bothering to take a sip. He thought back over the previous 24 hours. Damn, had it really been less than a day since he and Richie--

"Richard Tozier?" 

Eddie's head popped up. 

A young doctor was standing in the waiting room. "Are you folks here for Richard Tozier?"

Bill stood and gestured to their group. "That's us."

"I'm Dr. Hill. I just wanted to let you know that we've managed to stabilize Mr. Tozier. He's still unconscious at the moment but he'll be just fine."

"Oh thank God," Eddie breathed. "Can we see him?"

"Yes, but no more than two visitors at a time until he awakens," Dr. Hill replied.

Everyone looked at Eddie.

"We think you should see him first," Bill said.

"Thank you guys," Eddie replied.

Dr. Hill led him to a room, where Richie lay in a hospital bed. "I'll give you some privacy," he said. "Just buzz the nurses' station if you need anything."

Eddie pulled a chair up to the side of Richie's bed and took a seat. "Hey, Rich," he said. "I just want to say that I'm so glad that you're gonna be alright. I need you to wake up though, okay?"

He took Richie's hand in his own. "Please. Just wake up for me."


	20. Chapter Twenty: Richie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two more chapters + an epilogue to go after this!

_ Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. _

Richie’s eyes fluttered open then immediately closed again against the harsh overhead light.  _ What the fuck. _ He groaned.

“Richie?” came a voice. 

Richie turned towards the voice and squinted. “Eddie?”

“Yeah. It’s me.” Eddie grabbed Richie’s glasses off of the table next to the bed and slid them onto Richie’s face. “How are you feeling?” 

“Like I’ve been hit by a truck. What the fuck happened, man?”

Eddie frowned at him. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

Richie wracked his brain. “I remember seeing you outside that old abandoned house on Neibolt Street… Pennywise! Did we get him?”

Eddie looked down at the floor. “Uh, no. He escaped while I was chasing him through the tunnels.”

Richie winced. “I’m sorry, dude.”

Eddie shook his head. “It’s not your fault.” He stood. “I’m gonna go let the doctor know that you’re awake and get the others, ok?”

Richie nodded.

He watched as Eddie left the room, then sighed and leaned back, closing his eyes once again.  _ This is all my fault _ .

“Mr. Tozier!” a cheery voice rang out. 

Richie looked towards the door at the young, handsome doctor that was entering the room.

The doctor shook his hand. “I’m Dr. Hill. Glad to see you’re awake.”

He tapped at the tablet he held with a stylus. “Do you remember what happened?”

Richie nodded. “Yeah, doc. I was drugged by a psycho.”

Dr. Hill nodded. “We ran some tests on your blood. It seems like you had been injected with a combination of prescription painkillers and morphine. Not quite enough to be lethal, just enough to knock you out for a while.”

“So what’s the verdict then, doc? I can go home?”

Dr. Hill nodded. “Yes, as soon as the last of your labs come back.”

Richie nodded. “Fair enough.”

“I’ll be back as soon as I get those results. In the meantime, if you need anything call the nurses’ station.”

As soon as Dr. Hill left, Eddie returned, followed by Ben, Bev, Mike, and Stan.

“Hey, guys,” Richie greeted. “Wait, where’s Bill?”

“He got a phone call right before Eddie came to get us,” Mike explained. “How you doing?”

“Well it’s a good thing our annual drug tests are only once a year, but it looks like I’m gonna live,” Richie joked. “Turns out Pennywise figured out how to make his new cocktail non-fatal.”

“We’re all really glad you’re okay,” Stan said. The others murmured their assent.

“Thanks, guys.”

Suddenly Bill came bursting into the room. “Guys! We got him!” he said excitedly. “We got him.”

“You caught Pennywise?” Richie asked. “How? Eddie said he escaped.”

“We put out an APB on him and alerted the state police to be on the lookout for someone fitting his description. He was picked up trying to cross the state line into New Hampshire and is on his way back here as we speak.”

“Bill, that’s great news,” Eddie said. “I should go tell Director Eastwood.”

Richie watched as Eddie left the room once again.

Mike stood. “I, uh, I should probably go start the processing paperwork. Glad you’re okay, Rich.”

“Patty’s waiting for me,” Stan added.

“We’re both on duty in an hour,” Bev added, gesturing to herself and Ben. “Love you, Rich.”

Mike, Stan, Ben, and Beverly all gave Richie brief hugs before exiting the room, leaving Richie alone with Bill.

“Look, before you say anything--” Richie began.

Bill held up a hand to stop him. He glanced towards the door. “Eddie told me about last night… and this morning. He was worried sick about you, you know. He blames himself for you getting abducted.”

Richie shook his head vehemently. “No way. No  _ fucking _ way was any of that Eddie’s fault. That was on  _ me _ , you hear? I went for a walk to cool off and left my gun in the car when I  _ knew _ there was a chance something could happen. I let myself get distracted by my personal problems and that was my own fault.” Richie sighed. “ I really do like him, Bill, and without going into detail, last night was honestly the best night of my life. But Eddie said it himself -- he was here to do a job and now he’s done it, so he’s going to be leaving to go back to D.C. and he’ll forget all about some hick detective from small-town Maine.”

Bill opened his mouth to reply when the door opened.

Eddie walked in and noticed the otherwise empty room. “Uh… I can come back?” he said questioningly.

Bill shook his head. “Nah. Just getting Richie’s statement, right Rich?”

Richie nodded. “Yeah. Just getting my statement.”

“We’ll be adding assault and kidnapping charges in addition to the drug charges once we get Pennywise processed,” Bill added. “I should head out to go oversee that. Richie, I’m putting you on two weeks paid trauma leave. Uh-uh,” he said as Richie opened his mouth to protest. “That’s an order.”

He turned to Eddie. “I’ll get with Director Eastwood about transferring Pennywise to D.C. for the federal charges.”

Eddie nodded. “Ok. See ya, Bill.”

The room was silent as Bill left. 

Finally Eddie spoke. “Well, case closed, I guess.”

Richie huffed out a sigh. “Yeah, case closed. Guess you’ll be off to the next one tomorrow, huh?”

Eddie winced. “Look, Richie, I--”

Suddenly there was a knock on the door and Dr. Hill entered, this time accompanied by a nurse. “Ok, Mr. Tozier, it looks like you’re good to go,” he said while the nurse busied herself with undoing the leads on Richie’s chest and taking out his IV.

“Oh, I’ll… go get the car then,” Eddie said, then scurried out of the room like he was on fire.

“I have a few instructions for you before you go,” Dr. Hill continued. “The drugs may be out of your system but your body still suffered a trauma, so take it easy for the next 24 hours. Also, you were a bit dehydrated when you were brought in, so get plenty of rest and drink plenty of fluids.”

“Aye-aye, doc,” Richie saluted him.

“Alright, Mr. Tozier, you take care now, ok?”

“Thanks, doc. You too.”

Dr. Hill shook his hand one more time before leaving.

The nurse handed Richie a bag that contained his shirt and belongings. “You can go ahead and get dressed, then we’ll head out to the front.”

Richie pulled his shirt on and slid his feet into his shoes.

He rolled his eyes but sat in the provided wheelchair and let himself be wheeled to the hospital entrance where Eddie was waiting by Richie’s Mustang.

Richie thanked the nurse and got into the passenger seat. “How’d my car get here?” he asked. 

“Oh, uh, Stan and Patty got it from the high school and brought it here,” Eddie replied as he exited the hospital’s parking lot.

“Hmm,” Richie hummed.

The ride back to Richie’s house was otherwise silent.

Richie unlocked the door and led Eddie inside.

“Richie, I--” Eddie began.

“Look, man, I’m really tired,” Richie interrupted. “I’m just gonna go to bed, okay?”

Eddie sighed and nodded. “Oh, um, ok then. Just was gonna say that I’ll be heading out in the morning, so if I’m not here when you wake up...”

_ It’s for the best, _ Richie thought. “Ok. It was great working with you, Agent Kaspbrak. I’ll be sure to give you a good report. Good night. Have a safe trip back to D.C.”

“‘Night, Richie. Thanks.”

Richie headed upstairs to his bedroom, where the stress of the day lulled him to sleep almost immediately.


	21. Chapter Twenty-One - Eddie

Eddie lay in Richie’s guest bedroom, staring up at the ceiling. 

He couldn’t sleep. Although Pennywise had ultimately been captured, there was something about the case that still just wasn’t adding up. 

Eddie sighed and got out of bed, grabbing his phone off the charger and a tea bag out of the tin in his suitcase before quietly walking down Richie’s hallway and downstairs to the kitchen. 

He added some water to Richie’s electric tea kettle and grabbed a clean mug out of the pantry.

He waited until the kettle clicked, then added water to his mug in order to let the tea bag steep.

He settled down at Richie’s kitchen table. _What am I missing?_ He thought back over the details of the case, over all his interactions with the Derry PD’s officers, with Nikki, with...

 _Holy shit_.

He quickly texted Nikki. _Are you up? I have to talk to you. It’s important._

His phone rang. “Nikki, have you told anyone that we’ve captured Pennywise?” Eddie asked in lieu of greeting.

“Just Aaron,” Nikki replied. “I was going to call a meeting in the morning to report Pennywise’s capture to the team, why?”

Eddie took in a deep breath. “I think we have a mole.”

He quickly explained his hunch to Nikki.

 _“Shit,”_ Nikki swore. “I think you might be right. But how do we know for sure though?”

Eddie grinned. “Remember that time we set up that fake sting operation for Professor Haynes’s Criminal Psychology class?”

“Yeah.”

“Well this time, it’s for real.”

Eddie and Nikki quickly made their plans. “Ok, so I’ll make sure I have access to Gray’s phone and once you’re in the office you'll spread the false lead,” Eddie said.

“I still can’t fucking believe this,” Nikki muttered. “How the hell did I not see it?”

“You’re not the one who’s been processing all those field reports. I knew something wasn’t adding up but I couldn’t quite place what it was until tonight.”

“If this works out I’m putting you in charge of espionage training.”

Eddie laughed. “Please don’t. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, ok?”

“Ok. Love you, Eddie.”

“Love you too, Nik.”

He hung up and texted Bill. _Hey, I know you’re probably asleep right now but Director Eastwood and I think Pennywise might have had inside help at the DEA and I need access to his phone in order to conduct a sting operation._

He got up and rinsed his mug out, tea having long been forgotten, before heading back upstairs.

His phone chimed with a new text message. _Meet me at the station at 7:30?_

 _Perfect_ , Eddie texted back. _Thanks, Bill._

He settled back under the covers, determined to get some rest before the sting the next morning. 

He awoke to his alarm, feeling like he barely had gotten any rest. _Just get this sting done and head back home. I can rest once I’m back in D.C._

He quietly got dressed and wheeled his suitcases downstairs, loading them in his car before grabbing his suits that were back hanging in Richie’s laundry room after having been dry-cleaned.

He glanced back upstairs. He couldn’t leave without at least telling Richie goodbye, so he pulled out his phone.

_Richie,_

_I just wanted to thank you for everything this past week. I wouldn’t have been able to solve this case without you._

He wanted to tell Richie that the night they spent together had meant everything to him, explain just how wonderful Richie had felt beneath him, and let it be known that he wanted to do it again and again and again...

He bit his lip. _I really enjoyed spending time with you and getting to know you, and I’m so sorry that you got hurt. Just know that that was never my intention. I’m working on making sure that no one ever gets hurt on my watch again._

_If you’re ever in D.C. look me up. I mean that._

_Eddie_

He sent the text, took one last look around Richie’s kitchen (which in the past few days had felt more like home than his cold, empty apartment in D.C. did), and walked out the door.

He made his way to the police station, where Bill was waiting for him. “Hey, Eddie,” he greeted as Eddie walked into his office. He looked tired, but satisfied. “Here’s Pennywise’s phone. You said that you believe there’s a mole inside the DEA?”

Eddie nodded. “There’s been a team in D.C. that have been following up on leads I’ve sent them to research and we have reason to believe that one of them has been feeding information to Pennywise. There were just too many coincidences that kept Pennywise one step ahead of us until yesterday when I hadn’t had time to update Director Eastwood on the case.”

“So what’s the plan?”

Eddie quickly explained the plan to Bill. “So now we just wait for a message or call to come through with the false lead.” 

“Red-handed, gotcha.” Bill nodded.

Eddie pulled out his phone and sent Nikki a text. _Ready on my end._

 _Suspect in place. FBI on standby. Meeting in 5,_ came Nikki’s reply.

“So I actually have some news,” Bill said. “It’s not public information yet but we’ll be adding murder, attempted murder, and an additional kidnapping to Gray’s charges.”

“Oh?” Eddie replied. “You decided to charge him for the overdoses?”

Bill shook his head. “We ran his fingerprints through the system and it turns out his prints matched the ones that were found on the gun that was used to kill Georgie. Plus we managed to get pictures of Pennywise from 27 years ago, and Stan positively ID’ed him as the one who grabbed him in the tunnel when we were kids.”

“Holy fuck,” Eddie gasped. “Pennywise was the dealer who shot your brother?" Eddie's mind was reeling. "Shit, Bill. I don't even know what to say."

Bill nodded. “It took me 27 years but I finally caught my brother’s killer, thanks to you.”

Eddie's phone lit up with a text from Nikki. _The seed has been planted._

"Director Eastwood just briefed the team with the false lead. Now we wait."

He didn't have to wait long. A couple of minutes later Pennywise's phone chimed with a text from a number that was unsaved in Pennywise's phone, but that Eddie recognized as Franklin's.

 _Got word that you were spotted near some abandoned house in Derry. You might want to switch locations._ Then another, _Don't forget my extra cut of the profit for saving your ass from Kaspbrak._

"Busted," he muttered, capturing a screenshot and texting it to Nikki. "Fucking Franklin. I knew that fucker's field reports didn't make sense."

He switched off Pennywise's phone and handed it back to Bill. "Be sure to ship this off with the remaining drugs back to D.C. It's now also evidence in a case against a federal agent."

Bill nodded. "Will do. So now that the case is closed, I guess you're heading back to D.C.?"

"Yeah, I've got a long drive ahead of me and the reports for this case are gonna take me days to fill out, so I really need to get back so I can get a jump on them." Eddie held out his hand. "Thanks for everything, Bill. You really have a great team here. I'll miss you guys." The _Richie most of all_ went unspoken.

Bill shook his hand. "You're welcome back any time, Eddie."

"Thanks."

Eddie left the precinct and climbed back in his car, heading back towards D.C.

He had just crossed the state line into Massachusetts when his phone rang.

"Nikki, how'd the arrest go?" he greeted.

"Franklin sang like a canary once he realized he was caught. Apparently he'd been making money on the side for years by tipping off high-profile suspects, and one of them connected him with Pennywise a few months ago. He was promised a big portion of the drug money once Pennywise improved his formula and was supposed to connect him with a few cartels."

"No wonder he wanted this case," Eddie said in disgust. "He was just going to run Richie around in circles until Pennywise finished correcting his formula and escaped."

"Speaking of Richie…" Nikki's voice lilted curiously.

Eddie sighed. "Nikki, I've told you. He made his stance very clear. It was just sex."

"Because you made him think that!" Nikki exclaimed. "Didn't you say that he had asked you to stay the night with him, and that he was in the middle of making you both breakfast when you dropped the bomb on him, and despite that you still were the first person he asked for when he woke up in the hospital?"

"Yeah…" Eddie paused. "Nikki, I'm an idiot."

Nikki laughed gently. "I know that, honey."

"But what about the field report?"

"You have email, don't you? I hate to have to do this but fill out your report and send it to me, then I'm ordering you to take 2 weeks vacation. God knows you have enough time saved up to where that won't even put a dent in it."

Eddie bit his lip. "Do you really think he'll forgive me?"

"I have it on good authority that not only will he forgive you, but he'll ask your forgiveness as well. Where are you?"

"Just crossed into Massachusetts."

"Then turn around and go get your man."

"Thanks so much, Nik."

"Of course, Eddie. Let me know how it goes. Love you."

"Love you too."

Eddie hung up the phone. _You're braver than you think,_ he thought resolutely, then got off at the next exit, turned around, and headed back towards Maine.


	22. Chapter Twenty-Two - Richie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last regular chapter! Final chapter will be an epilogue.

When Richie awoke the next morning, it was to several text messages from his friends and colleagues… and one from Eddie.

He resolutely ignored the message from Eddie and began going through the others. 

_ Hey, Rich, just checking in on you!  _ read Ben’s message.  _ If you need anything let me and Bev know. _

He had received similar messages from Mike and Stan and Patty, well-wishes and offers of assistance.

Bill's message, however, read  _ Call me as soon as you get this. _

Richie immediately hit dial. “Hello?” Bill answered.

“Bill, got your message,” Richie replied. “What’s up?”

“Rich, I have something else to discuss about the Pennywise case with you, and it’s best if I do it in person. Can you come down to the station for a bit?”

“Yeah, sure man. I’ll be there soon.”

Richie hung up and took a quick shower since he had gone straight to bed the evening before, washing the cave and hospital grime off of him before getting dressed in a hoodie and some faded jeans.

He grabbed his keys and wallet, then was out the door.

He headed to the station and parked, swiping his ID on the employee entrance before slipping inside. Since it was Sunday, the station was mostly empty, with the exception of a few uniformed officers roaming around.

Richie stopped in front of Bill’s office and knocked on the doorframe.

Bill looked up from the report he had been reading. “Hey, Rich. Come on in.” He took his reading glasses off and scrubbed a hand over his face. 

Richie noticed that Bill looked even more tired than usual. “Dude, have you been here all night?”

Bill shook his head. “No, I went home for a shower.” He pointed to the chair across from his desk. “Have a seat.”

Richie sat. “So what’s up?”

“Pennywise was the one who killed Georgie and abducted Stan when we were kids,” Bill said.

Richie was shocked. “What the fuck? Are you sure?”

Bill nodded. “We uploaded the prints that were pulled off of the gun and Stan positively ID’ed him based on a picture we found of Gray from back then. I’ve got Reynolds working on a confession.”

“Holy  _ shit, _ Bill. How are you feeling? How’s Stan?”

“I’m… doing ok. Even if the local charges never go to trial I still feel like we got justice for Georgie. As for Stan, I talked to Patty this morning and she said that Stan sat her down last night and told her about everything that happened the summer after Georgie died, they both had a good cathartic cry, then Stan fell asleep in her arms.” 

Bill raised an eyebrow. “How are  _ you _ doing?”

Richie shrugged. “I’m fine. Not feeling any side effects of the drugs whatsoever.”

Bill shook his head. “Not what I mean, Rich.”

Richie sighed. “What do you want me to say, Bill? That Eddie is the most incredible person I’ve ever met and that I’ve fallen ass-over-teakettle for him despite only knowing him a week? That I ruined what could’ve possibly been the best relationship of my entire life? That I fucked up by sleeping with him and despite that fact if given the chance I would go back and do it again just to have experienced the best sex I’ve ever had? Is that what you want to hear?” He put his head in his hands. “Because I already miss him, Bill. I’ve lived on my own for over twenty years but this is the first time I’ve ever truly missed having someone’s presence in my house.”

Bill looked at him sadly. “He stopped by here on his way out of town, you know.”

Richie looked up. “He did?”

Bill nodded. “Yeah, he had some loose ends to wrap up regarding the case so he came by to do that.”

“He texted me before he left,” Richie admitted. “I haven’t read it.”

“Did you want to read it now?”

Richie nodded and pulled out his phone.

“Richie,” he read aloud. “I just wanted to thank you for everything this past week. I wouldn’t have been able to solve this case without you. I really enjoyed spending time with you and getting to know you, and I’m so sorry that you got hurt. Just know that that was never my intention. I’m working on making sure that no one ever gets hurt on my watch again. Eddie.”

“If it helps, he looked pretty sad to be leaving,” Bill said.

Richie shook his head with a sad smile. “It doesn’t, but thanks for the attempt, dude.”

He stood. “I’m gonna head home. I’m still pretty tired from yesterday. Keep me updated on that confession?”

Bill nodded. “Sure thing, Rich.”

Richie got into his Mustang and pulled his phone out again, reading over Eddie’s text one more time before heading home on autopilot.

His phone chimed with an alert as he parked.

He got out and noticed a message from Bill.  _ Made it home yet? _

_ Just pulled in, _ he replied, then looked up and froze as he saw a familiar figure sitting on his porch steps. 

"Eddie? What are you doing here?" Richie asked incredulously. "You're supposed to be halfway back to D.C. by now."

Eddie stood as Richie walked up to him. "Can we talk inside?"

"Oh, uh, shit, yeah." Richie quickly unlocked the door, letting Eddie in ahead of him.

Eddie headed to the living room, Richie dutifully following behind.

They sat on the sofa.

"So--" Richie began. 

"It wasn't a mistake," Eddie blurted.

Richie blinked. "What?"

"The other night, it wasn't a mistake." Eddie winced. "I panicked. I had gone for a run yesterday morning in order to think about the case but instead all I could think about was you and how good you had felt and how good you made  _ me _ feel and how much I wanted to be inside you again, how much I wanted to have  _ you _ inside of  _ me _ , then all of a sudden I was hearing my mother's voice in my head telling me I was sick and letting myself get distracted by you and that more people were going to die and it would be all my fault so I panicked and told you that it was a mistake but I lied, Richie." He paused to finally take a breath. “I lied to you. It wasn’t a mistake at all. It was the best night of my entire life and no matter what happens I’ll never regret one second I spent with you."

“So you came all the way back here to tell me that?” Richie’s mind was reeling.

Eddie flushed. “You’re right, that was stupid. I’ll just go--”

"No, wait!" Richie reached out and grabbed Eddie's hand before Eddie could get up. "I lied too.”

“About what, meeting an informant? I kind of figured that out.”

Richie shook his head. “No--well, yeah, actually, but I mean when I told you it was just sex. I lied. It wasn’t just sex. I know this is going to sound ridiculous but even though we’ve known each other less than a week I feel like I’ve known you my entire life.”

“Me too. I feel the same way.” Eddie reached out and stroked a thumb across Richie’s cheek. “We’re both idiots, aren’t we?”

Richie’s gaze flickered down to Eddie’s lips. “The biggest.”

Eddie tilted his face up and leaned in. “We should probably do something about that.”

“Oh, I definitely agree with you there,” Richie whispered, his lips inches from Eddie’s own.

Eddie groaned. “Richie, if you don’t kiss me in the next two seconds I--”

Richie closed the rest of the distance.

* * *

A short time later they lay naked and sated in Richie’s bed, basking in the afterglow of the first ( _of_ _hopefully several,_ Richie thought _)_ round of mind-blowing sex. Eddie had sucked Richie off, then Richie had slowly worked two fingers inside Eddie while he returned the favor. Richie had almost come again just seeing the look of utter bliss on Eddie’s face as he came down Richie’s throat.

Eddie snuggled his face into Richie’s neck and pressed a gentle kiss to his pulse point. “Just so you know,” he murmured, “besides needing to get my field report submitted to Nikki I’m on mandated vacation for the next two weeks.”

Richie hummed. “Well, isn’t that a coincidence. I’m also on a mandated two-week vacation.”

“Mmm… I wonder what we could do with all that free time.”

Richie grinned seductively. “I can think of a few things.” 

Eddie reached over for his phone. “Let me just text Nikki and tell her I’m staying in town while I’m on vacation.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea,” Richie agreed, reaching for his own phone.  _ Looks like Eddie’s going to be making it to dinner next Sunday after all,  _ he sent to Bill, then quirked an eyebrow at Bill’s response.  _ You’re welcome. _

A few seconds later, Eddie laughed. 

“What?” Richie asked.

“Nikki’s reply,” Eddie replied, showing Richie his phone. Eddie had sent,  _ So it looks like I’m going to be staying in Derry for the next couple of weeks… _ to which Director Eastwood had responded,  _ Enjoy your sexcation. You’re welcome. _

“Well that’s interesting, Bill also told me ‘you’re welcome’. You don’t suppose…”

Eddie shook his head. “That those two worked together in order to get us to figure our shit out? Absolutely.”

"Jeez, I feel like I need to send Director Eastwood flowers or a thank-you card or some shit."

Eddie set his phone back on his nightstand and rolled back over on top of Richie with a grin. “We'll thank Nikki and Bill properly later. Right now, I'm on sexcation.”


	23. Epilogue - Eddie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this is it, folks. Thank you so much to everyone who has read, kudo'ed & commented on this story. You guys are the best!
> 
> This chapter starts out porny -- if you just want the plot skip down to the line, "Richie tucked his head in Eddie's neck and snuggled closer."
> 
> I had another idea for a second epilogue but will likely just post that as a sequel -- Y'all know what's coming. ;)

*****One Year Later*****

Eddie and Richie had spent two glorious weeks together after the Pennywise case was over -- mostly in Richie’s bed -- then Eddie had reluctantly gone back to D.C., although he and Richie had made it a point to call and/or Facetime each other every day and to see each other in person whenever physically possible. It was more difficult for Richie to make it to D.C. with his work schedule but whenever Eddie wasn’t out in the field on a case he usually had weekends off, so more often than not Eddie was in Derry on the weekends visiting Richie.

This particular weekend, however, had marked two months since they had seen each other in person. As soon as Richie had opened the door he had pulled Eddie inside and was currently ravishing him so thoroughly that Eddie was having trouble remembering his own name. 

" _ Fuck yes _ ,  _ Richie, right there, _ " Eddie moaned as Richie hit his prostate for the fourth stroke in a row. "Baby, you fuck me so good, how are you so fucking  _ AMAZING _ at this?"

Richie huffed out a laugh. "I have a _ very _ responsive partner," he replied, hitting Eddie's prostate again on the word 'very', "that lets me know what he likes."

Eddie had figured out early in his and Richie's relationship that he liked to both fuck Richie and  _ be _ fucked by Richie and that Richie appreciated the fact that he was quite vocal during sex.  _ You're such a bossy little bottom, aren't you, _ Richie had joked in bed once when Eddie complained that Richie needed to get his fingers in him ' _ RIGHT THIS SECOND, RICHARD, I SWEAR TO GOD' _ until Eddie had turned the tables and wound up fucking Richie's brains out, marking the first (but not last) time Richie had cried during sex -- another memorable moment being the first time Eddie had told Richie that he loved him. Richie had been buried deep inside Eddie, hitting his prostate with every thrust, and in his lust-filled babble Eddie had moaned out,  _ "Richie, baby, why are you so perfect, you're so good to me, I’m so lucky you’re mine, God, Richie, I love you, I fucking love you." _ Richie had gone off like a rocket, slamming into Eddie so firmly that Eddie had immediately followed, coming so hard he saw stars. " _ Fucking CHRIST,"  _ Richie had panted, burying his head in Eddie's neck as he drew in several ragged breaths.  _ "I love you, Eddie. I love you so fucking much." _

Eddie's back arched as Richie changed angles, drawing Richie so deep inside that Eddie was sure he'd be able to feel Richie's cock in his throat.  _ "Fuck _ , I fucking missed you and your cock, baby, keep that up and you won't even have to touch me in order to get me to come."

"Mmm, missed you too, baby.  _ Fuck _ , I love making you feel good. You make the most beautiful sounds for me, Eddie, let me hear you."

Eddie let out another moan. " _ Christ _ , Richie, I'm close."

Richie reached up towards the head of the bed and tangled his fingers with Eddie's, effectively pinning him to the mattress and giving Richie more leverage with which to fuck Eddie harder. "Yeah, baby? Look at you, taking my cock so well. You gonna come for me? Gonna scream my name while I fill you up? I'm so fucking close, Eds, wanna feel you come on my cock." 

_ "Fuck, fuck, I-- Fuck, Richie!" _

Eddie came with a shout, thick ropes shooting across his stomach and chest. He vaguely recognized the sound of Richie moaning his name as he emptied himself inside of Eddie.

Richie let go of one of Eddie's hands in order to pull him in for a sloppy kiss.  _ "God, I fucking love you," _ he breathed.

" _ M'largabshu _ ," Eddie mumbled.

Richie grinned. "That good, huh?"

"Mmm."

Richie reached across him and grabbed a few wipes out of the pack on the nightstand, carefully pulling out of Eddie before cleaning them both off and tossing the used wipes in the garbage can near his bed. He curled up against Eddie's side.

Eddie turned to face Richie and carefully brushed some loose hair out of his face. "I love you," he whispered.

"Ahh, so glad to hear that you've discovered the English language once again," Richie joked. 

Eddie snorted. "Please. I know for a fact that you secretly get an ego boost when you sex me so good that I become incoherent."

Richie shrugged. "It makes me feel good to make you feel good, 's all."

Eddie cradled Richie's face in his hands. "You make me feel  _ very _ good," he said, looking Richie directly in his eyes. "Better than anyone else has ever made me feel." He gave Richie a soft kiss and pulled him close. "I really,  _ really _ love you."

Richie tucked his head in Eddie's neck and snuggled closer.

"So, uh, I got offered a promotion at work," Eddie said casually.

Richie's head popped up. "What? That's great, babe."

"Uh, yeah. I've been kind of thinking about getting out of the field permanently -- I mean, I love it, don't get me wrong -- but I was talking to Nikki the other day about how much I miss you when I'm out of town on really long assignments like this last one and how Facetime just isn't the same as seeing you in person, and the next thing I know I hear that there's a position open for the head of the satellite office in Portland and that the position was mine if I wanted it."

A slow smile spread on Richie's face. "Wait, did you say  _ Portland _ office? As in  _ Maine _ ?"

Eddie bit his lip, trying not to smile. "Yeah."

"And why didn't you lead with that?"

Eddie couldn't help but grin at the obvious joy on Richie's face. "Well excuse me, but I'm still riding the high of just getting dicked down by my incredibly hot boyfriend, my brain's not completely back online yet. "

Richie huffed out a laugh. "Incredibly hot boyfriend, huh?"

Eddie smirked. "Mmm hmm. The hottest. Maybe you know him -- he’s _ definitely  _ the sexiest detective on the Derry police force. He's tall and broad with shaggy dark hair that I love to run my fingers through, gorgeous blue eyes that I can get lost in, and a jawline that I could cut myself on." Eddie licked his lips. "And other attributes that I love to get my hands and mouth on."

"Mmm, yeah, that description  _ does _ sound familiar," Richie murmured with a grin, although he blushed as he said it. He still got flustered when Eddie complimented his looks, even though Eddie had made it his personal mission to tell his boyfriend how attractive he found him at every available opportunity ever since the time that Richie had described himself as a 'disaster Muppet'. Eddie had made soft, slow love to him that evening, worshipping every inch of Richie's body and whispering soft praises in his ear before fucking him so sweetly that Richie had cried as he came.

He glanced up at Richie and bit his lip. "I told Nikki I'd think about it and let her know after I talked to you. I mean, we would be able to see each other a few times a week too instead of just on weekends? Or Portland's not far, maybe I could just buy a house out here and commute there? You could help me look--"

"Actually, just-- wait here for just a second," Richie interrupted.

Eddie had watched as Richie scrambled out of bed and went to his dresser, pulling out a small, wrapped box. He hesitated just a moment, then sat back on the bed and handed the box to Eddie.

Eddie took the lid off of the box and pulled out a key -- a  _ house _ key. A key to  _ Richie’s _ house. He looked up at Richie in shock.

"Move in with me," Richie blurted.

Eddie blinked. "What?"

"Move in with me," Richie repeated. "I was going to give this to you this weekend anyway so you could just let yourself in if you got into town and I was at work or something, but given the circumstances..."

Eddie opened his mouth, then closed it.  _ Richie wants me to move in with him. _

Richie grimaced. "Or I mean, you don't have to," he said in a rush, "I just thought--"

"Yes."

Richie cut himself off. "Yes?" 

"Yes, Richie," Eddie said with a grin. "I'd love to -- oof."

Richie had tackled Eddie to the bed and was currently planting kisses all over his face. "You're really moving here," he said. 

Eddie grinned as the realization sank in. "Yeah, Rich. I'm really moving here. I'll get to come home to you every day."

Richie ran his hands through his already sex-mussed hair, making it stick up even more. "Oh my God. Oh my God, I love you. I fucking love you so fucking much. How soon can you move in?"

Eddie laughed. "I have to accept the position first then put in for the transfer."

Richie grabbed Eddie's phone off of the nightstand. "Here, get it going."

Eddie grinned as he pulled up Nikki's's contact info, putting the phone on speaker so Richie could listen in.

"Eddie?" Nikki answered. "I thought you were with Richie in Derry this weekend."

"I am," Eddie replied. "I'm just calling to tell you that I officially accept the position in Portland."

"Ok then. I'll get your transfer paperwork started on Monday. I can also put you in contact with someone about housing in the area."

Eddie glanced over at Richie, who honestly looked like he had just won the lottery. His heart fluttered. "Actually, there's no need. Richie asked me to move in with him."

"Well in that case I'll get your transfer paperwork pushed through. How does two weeks from Monday sound for a start date? Think you can get packed up and moved if I give you the week after next off?"

Eddie thought about his belongings in D.C. He probably didn't need to take everything with him since he was moving in with Richie and there would be overlap, but he still would have to go through his belongings.

While he was still thinking, Richie interjected, "Abso-fucking-lutely." 

Nikki chuckled. "Hi, Richie."

"Hey there, Nikki."

"Take good care of Eddie for me, ok? We're gonna miss him here in D.C."

Richie gave Eddie a kiss on his temple. "Don't worry, I will."

Eddie's heart fluttered again. "Nikki, I'll talk to you more when I get back on Monday, ok?"

"Absolutely. You guys take care, ok?"

"You too. Give Aaron our love. Bye."

"Will do. Bye."

Eddie hung up the phone. "Two weeks. Wow."

Richie was already on his own phone. "Bill? Hey, yeah, it's me. Listen, I'm gonna need the week after next off. Eddie's moving in with me." He glanced over at Eddie. "No, no, it's not that. Not yet. No, actually he's transferring to the DEA office in Portland. Yep. Uh huh, me too. I don't know exactly when that'll be, but yeah, soon man, definitely soon. Yeah of course, who else would it be? Of course, you'll be the first one to know. Yeah, ok, thanks. Later, Bill." Richie hung up.

"What was all that?" Eddie asked.

Richie shrugged. "Eh, just Bill asking about some stuff." He tossed his phone to the foot of the bed, then sheepishly retrieved it and put it back on the nightstand when Eddie gave him an exasperated glare.

Eddie pulled Richie in and guided them both until they were laying down, Richie's back to Eddie's front. 

"I still can't believe that you're moving here," Richie said softly. "I miss you so much when you're not around and I'm so happy that I'll get to come home to you every night."

Eddie placed a soft kiss to Richie's shoulder as he thought of the years they had ahead of them. "I know what you mean."

**Author's Note:**

> Come join me in my Reddie love over on Tumblr (at) TrashcanReddieFan! 
> 
> I'm also now on Twitter -- (at) Trash4Reddie
> 
> Btw, Eddie's undercover look is this:
> 
> https://images.app.goo.gl/kvj7N6XhvbnpuCJT7
> 
> And Richie's is this:
> 
> https://images.app.goo.gl/SufezSt2ApVUFVqk6
> 
> *drools*


End file.
